The Heart Failure Clinic: Improving 30-Day All-Cause Hospital Readmissions

Heart failure-related recurrent hospitalizations are widely recognized as a source of burden to both patients and the health system. Hospital discharges represent a transition of care and can often become a catalyst for readmission. One strategy in reducing this burden is the implementation of dedicated heart failure clinics. We conducted a retrospective review of all patients discharged from an inner city safety-net public hospital with a discharge diagnosis of heart failure. Patients followed in the Heart Clinic (HC) were compared to those with standard follow-up. All included cases were followed for 30 days after discharge to determine whether an all-cause readmission occurred. There were 258 patient discharges with an overall sicker population in the HC cohort. The HC group had a better event-free survival with a 67.1% reduction in readmission (log rank *p < .05). In concluding, a dedicated heart failure clinic reduced 30-day readmissions for patients who were discharged after having an acute exacerbation of heart failure.