Impact of physician continuity on death or urgent readmission after discharge among patients with heart failure

BACKGROUND: Early physician follow-up after discharge is associated with lower rates of death and readmission among patients with heart failure. We explored whether physician continuity further influences outcomes after discharge. METHODS: We used data from linked administrative databases for all adults aged 20 years or more in the province of Alberta who were discharged alive from hospital between January 1999 and June 2009 with a first-time diagnosis of heart failure. We used Cox proportional hazard models with time-dependent covariates to analyze the effect of follow-up with a familiar physician within the first month after discharge on the primary outcome of death or urgent all-cause readmission over 6 months. A familiar physician was defined as one who had seen the patient at least twice in the year before the index admission or once during the index admission. RESULTS: In the first month after discharge, 5336 (21.9%) of the 24 373 identified patients had no follow-up visits, 16 855 (69.2%) saw a familiar physician, and 2182 (9.0%) saw unfamiliar physician(s) exclusively. The risk of death or unplanned readmission during the 6-month observation period was lower among patients who saw a familiar physician (43.6%; adjusted hazard ratio HR 0.87, 95% confidence interval CI 0.83-0.91) or an unfamiliar physician (43.6%; adjusted HR 0.90, 95% CI 0.83-0.97) for early follow-up visits, as compared with patients who had no follow-up visits (62.9%). Taking into account all follow-up visits over the 6-month period, we found that the risk of death or urgent readmission was lower among patients who had all of their visits with a familiar physician than among those followed by unfamiliar physicians (adjusted HR 0.91, 95% CI 0.85-0.98). INTERPRETATION: Early physician follow-up after discharge and physician continuity were both associated with better outcomes among patients with heart failure. Research is needed to explore whether physician continuity is important for other conditions and in settings other than recent hospital discharge.