Impact of Congestive Heart Failure Discharge Planning on Congestive Heart Failure Re-Admission Rates

Background: Congestive Heart Failure (CHF) is the most common diagnosis accounting for more healthcare costs than any diagnosis. CHF readmissions contribute significantly to this expenditure. Quality of care in heart failure is linked to process based performance measures. This study evaluated the relationship between adherence to performance metrics and 30 day readmission rates. Methods: This was a single center case-control study that evaluated 6063 consecutive patients admitted with CHF from December 2001 through December 2008. Data was collected for readmission to the hospital within 30 days and compliance to the heart failure performance measures at discharge. Results: The rate of readmission for CHF increased steadily from 16.8% in 2002 to 24.8% in 2008. Adherence to CHF performance measures increased concurrently during the same time frame from 88.7% to 98.9%.Except for left ventricular function (LVF) assessment, 30 day readmission rate was not associated with adherence to performance measures. Readmitted patients had twice the odds of not having their LVF assessed (OR: 2.0; p Conclusions: Heart failure performance measures, except for the assessment of left ventricular function have little relationship with 30 day hospital readmissions after discharge. More studies need to be done to identify performance measures that correlate with quality of care in heart failure patients

Right ventricular outflow tract velocity time integral-to-pulmonary artery systolic pressure ratio: a non-invasive metric of pulmonary arterial compliance differs across the spectrum of pulmonary hypertension.

Pulmonary arterial compliance (PAC), invasively assessed by the ratio of stroke volume to pulmonary arterial (PA) pulse pressure, is a sensitive marker of right ventricular (RV)-PA coupling that differs across the spectrum of pulmonary hypertension (PH) and is predictive of outcomes. We assessed whether the echocardiographically derived ratio of RV outflow tract velocity time integral to PA systolic pressure (RVOT-VTI/PASP) (a) correlates with invasive PAC, (b) discriminates heart failure with preserved ejection-associated PH (HFpEF-PH) from pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), and (c) is associated with functional capacity. We performed a retrospective cohort study of patients with PAH (n = 70) and HFpEF-PH (n = 86), which was further dichotomized by diastolic pressure gradient (DPG) into isolated post-capillary PH (DPG \u3c 7 mmHg; Ipc-PH, n = 54), and combined post- and pre-capillary PH (DPG ≥ 7 mm Hg; Cpc-PH, n = 32). Of the 156 patients, 146 had measurable RVOT-VTI or PASP and were included in further analysis. RVOT-VTI/PASP correlated with invasive PAC overall (ρ = 0.61, P \u3c 0.001) and for the PAH (ρ = 0.38, P = 0.002) and HFpEF-PH (ρ = 0.63, P \u3c 0.001) groups individually. RVOT-VTI/PASP differed significantly across the PH spectrum (PAH: 0.13 [0.010-0.25] vs. Cpc-PH: 0.20 [0.12-0.25] vs. Ipc-PH: 0.35 [0.22-0.44]; P \u3c 0.001), distinguished HFpEF-PH from PAH (AUC = 0.72, 95% CI = 0.63-0.81) and Cpc-PH from Ipc-PH (AUC = 0.78, 95% CI = 0.68-0.88), and remained independently predictive of 6-min walk distance after multivariate analysis (standardized β-coefficient = 27.7, 95% CI = 9.2-46.3; P = 0.004). Echocardiographic RVOT-VTI/PASP is a novel non-invasive metric of PAC that differs across the spectrum of PH. It distinguishes the degree of pre-capillary disease within HFpEF-PH and is predictive of functional capacity

Heart Failure Performance Measures: Do They Have an Impact on 30-Day Readmission Rates?

Congestive heart failure (CHF) accounts for more health care costs than any other diagnosis. Readmissions contribute to this expenditure. The authors evaluated the relationship between adherence to performance metrics and 30-day readmissions. This was a retrospective study of 6063 patients with CHF between 2001 and 2008. Data were collected for 30-day readmissions and compliance with CHF performance measures at discharge. Rates of readmission for CHF increased from 16.8% in 2002 to 24.8% in 2008. Adherence to performance measures increased concurrently from 95.8% to 99.9%. Except for left ventricular function (LVF) assessment, the 30-day readmission rate was not associated with adherence to performance measures. Readmitted patients had twice the odds of not having their LVF assessed (odds ratio = 2.0; P \u3c .00005; 95% confidence interval = 1.45-2.63). CHF performance measures, except for the LVF assessment, have little relationship to 30-day readmissions. Further studies are needed to identify performance measures that correlate with quality of care

Heart Failure Performance Measures: Do They Have an Impact on 30-Day Readmission Rates?

Congestive heart failure (CHF) accounts for more health care costs than any other diagnosis. Readmissions contribute to this expenditure. The authors evaluated the relationship between adherence to performance metrics and 30-day readmissions. This was a retrospective study of 6063 patients with CHF between 2001 and 2008. Data were collected for 30-day readmissions and compliance with CHF performance measures at discharge. Rates of readmission for CHF increased from 16.8% in 2002 to 24.8% in 2008. Adherence to performance measures increased concurrently from 95.8% to 99.9%. Except for left ventricular function (LVF) assessment, the 30-day readmission rate was not associated with adherence to performance measures. Readmitted patients had twice the odds of not having their LVF assessed (odds ratio = 2.0; P \u3c .00005; 95% confidence interval = 1.45-2.63). CHF performance measures, except for the LVF assessment, have little relationship to 30-day readmissions. Further studies are needed to identify performance measures that correlate with quality of care

Association between social vulnerability index and admission urgency for transcatheter aortic valve replacement

Background: Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) are not offered equitably to vulnerable population groups. Adequate levels of insurance may narrow gaps among patients with higher social vulnerability index (SVI). Among a national population of individuals with commercial or Medicare insurance, we sought to determine whether SVI was associated with urgency of receipt of TAVR for aortic stenosis. Methods and results: Using Optum's de-identified Clinformatics Data Mart Database (CDM), we identified admissions for TAVR with aortic stenosis between January 2018 and March 2022. Admission urgency was identified by CDM claims codes. SVI was cross-referenced to patient zip codes and grouped into quintiles. Generalized linear mixed effects models were used to predict the probability of a TAVR admission being urgent based on SVI quintiles, adjusting for patient and hospital-level covariates. Results: Among 6680 admissions for TAVR [median age 80 years (interquartile range 75–85), 43.9 % female], 8.5 % (n = 567) were classified as urgent. After adjusting for patient and hospital-level variables, there were no significant differences in the odds of urgent admission for TAVR according to SVI quintiles [OR 5th (greatest social vulnerability) vs 1st quintile (least social vulnerability): 1.29 (95 % CI: 0.90–1.85)]. Conclusions: Among commercial or Medicare beneficiaries with aortic stenosis, SVI was not associated with admission urgency for TAVR. To clarify whether cardiovascular care delivery is improved across SVI with higher paying beneficiaries, future investigation should identify whether relationships between SVI and TAVR urgency vary for Medicaid beneficiaries compared to commercial beneficiaries

Creation of the American Heart Association Journals’ equity, diversity, and inclusion editorial board : the next step to achieving the 2024 impact goal

Approximately 2 years ago, the American Heart Association’s (AHA) National Board commissioned volunteer leaders to develop new goals to address health equity and to provide strong science to reduce health care disparities, including consideration of social determinants of health, structural racism, and rural health inequities. This effort resulted in the 2024 Impact Goal,1 which states that “every person deserves the opportunity for a full, healthy life. As champions for health equity, by 2024, the AHA will advance cardiovascular health for all, including identifying and removing barriers to health care access and quality.” One of the 10 commitments stated in the 2024 Impact Goal is to enhance the focus of our AHA scientific journals (https://www.ahajournals.org) on disparities, health equity, antiracism, community-engaged/community-based participatory research, and implementation science