Transitional Care Interventions to Reduce Readmission in Patients with Heart Failure
Abstract
Heart failure affects millions of people in the United States and serves as a significant economic
burden on the health care system. The chronic nature of illness serves as a challenge for heart
failure patients to manage their symptoms, resulting in hospitalization and readmission. The
purpose of the project is to assess the effects of transitional care interventions in reducing
readmission among heart failure patients. The inquiry will focus on individualized patient
education using teach-back method and telephone follow-up in the transitional care interventions
to enhance the self-care abilities and reduce readmissions in patients with heart failure. A quasi
experimental, one group, pre-test, and post-test design with a sample of 40 patients received the
transitional care interventions at a cardiology outpatient setting. The self-care of heart failure
index version 6.2 was used to measure self-care ability and reduce readmission in six-months.
The project results support the evidence that transitional care interventions aid in reducing heart
failure related readmission. The heart failure readmission rate for the participants in the project
was reduced by 5% at the end of six-months. Reducing heart failure-related readmission by
improving self-care ability promotes quality of life, enhances satisfaction, and reduces health
care cost.
Degree
D.N.P.
Thesis Department
Rights
Open Access (fully available)
Copyright retained by author