Weight scales: Do they impact heart failure hospital recidivism?

This study was designed to evaluate the impact of providing weight scales on the readmission rates of heart failure (HF) patients. The limited research on this topic has found a correlation between the provision of weight scales and decreased readmission rate. The literature review and Dorothea Orem's self care theory establishes the importance of symptom recognition in HF patients to also decrease the rate of readmission. The original design was a quasi experimental quantitative study of an intervention program using data from charts of HF patients who were given weight scales. This sample of patients would be compared to HF patients who did receive weight scales at a different institution. Two acute care hospitals in New Jersey; one had a HF discharge program that provided HF patients with weight scales; the other did not. Difficulties with implementing this field study made the original design impossible to implement. The new two group design compared the readmission rates of HF patients who received weight scales to HF patients who did not receive weight scales at the same facility in Central Jersey. This design also proved impossible to implement due to a new set of difficulties related to conducting field studies. These difficulties made it impossible to reach any statistical conclusions about the effect of weight scale provision on HF patients. The significant learning of this study was about the difficulties of conducting field studies