Background: The National Health Insurance Administration in Taiwan has promoted the heart failure post-acute care (HF-PAC) program as a means to provide proactive integrated care within the optimal treatment timeframe to enhance functional recovery after acute decompensated heart failure (HF).
Objectives: The aim of this program was to reduce HF readmission rates, improved medication prescription rates, and improve the quality of life in HF patients.
Methods: Patients who had a reduced left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) of ≤ 40% were included and followed up for 6 months after discharge. They underwent cardiac rehabilitation and physiological, and nutritional status evaluations. The main clinical outcomes of the HF-PAC program were guideline-directed medical therapy prescription rate and 6-month readmission rate.
Results: A total of 122 patients were recruited from June 2018 to December 2020 at a medical center in southern Taiwan. The patients' activities of daily living, nutritional status, quality of life and LVEF were significantly improved during the HF-PAC program. More than 95% of the patients received guideline-directed medical prescriptions at the end of the HF-PAC program. The cardiovascular-related 6-month re-admission rate after the HF-PAC program ended was 27.7%, and it could be predicted by the New York Health Association functional class [hazard ratio (HR) 95% confidence interval (95% CI) = 4.12 (1.36-12.46)], value of the Mini Nutritional Assessment - Short Form [HR (95% CI) = 0.46 (0.31-0.68)] and LVEF [HR (95% CI) = 0.95 (0.91-0.99)].
Conclusions: By incorporating multidisciplinary healthcare teams, the HF-PAC program improves the guideline- directed medical therapy prescription rate, thus improving patients' cardiac function, physical activity recovery, the quality of life, and also reduces their readmission rate.
Keywords: Cardiac rehabilitation; Congestive heart failure; Patient care team; Post-acute care.