Preventing congestive heart failure readmission through education and early symptom mitigation

Abstract

<p>Congestive heart failure (CHF) is a chronic disease requiring diligent management by the healthcare provider and close adherence to a prescribed treatment plan by the patient. Difficulty understanding or following the different aspects of a management plan in the home could be a contributing factor to the rate of hospital readmission for episodes of acute decompensated heart failure (Hollan, 2010). The aim of this study is to evaluate the effects of a CHF education program on the readmission rates of CHF patients. A quantitative, prospective, experimental design will be employed. Hochbaum's Health Belief Model will serve as the guiding framework. This study will recruit participants from the intensive care unit (lCU) of a 222 bed Central Ohio hospital. The typical population of this ICU is a mix of medical, surgical, and cardiovascular patients. The accessible population consists of all patients admitted to the ICU from this hospital's service area. Convenience sampling will be utilized and all patients with a DRG-127 diagnosis will be approached for study participation. Patients meeting the inclusion criteria will be randomly assigned to either the intervention group who will receive the CHF education program or the control group who will receive standard care. Recruitment of study participants will be ongoing for a period of 15 weeks with a target of 100 enrollees. All participants will complete a Demographic Questionnaire. The rate of readmissions up to and/or within 30 days post discharge will be monitored through a coded card presented by participants upon readmission. Hospital admission data base will be queried once daily. Non-CHF related admissions will not count. Descriptive statistics will be used to summarize data, Pearson r to identify correlation between variables and t-test for differences between intervention and control groups.</p><p>This presentation occurred at the Wright State University Campus-Wide Celebration of Research, Scholarship and Creative Activities on April 8, 2011</p>