Intense monitoring of patients with chronic heart failure following discharge from hospital - more studies needed.

Taylor SJC, Bestall JC, Cotter S, Falshaw M, Hood SG, Parsons S, Wood L, Underwood M

Published Online:

January 21, 2009

Patients with chronic heart failure (CHF) are often admitted to hospital as an emergency. The authors looked at 16 clinical trials that tested different ways of organising the care of CHF patients after they leave hospital. Only one of these trials was determined to be of high quality. There was some weak evidence that the intense monitoring of patients following discharge from hospital might improve survival and reduce the number of hospital readmissions. This type of care usually involved home visits and follow up telephone calls from specialist nurses. More research is needed.

Abstract (click to read)

Background:

Chronic heart failure (CHF) is a serious, common condition associated with frequent hospitalisation. Several different disease management interventions (clinical service organisation interventions) for patients with CHF have been proposed.

Objectives:

To assess the effectiveness of disease management interventions for patients with CHF.

Search strategy:

We searched: Cochrane CENTRAL Register of Controlled Trials (to June 2003); MEDLINE (January 1966 to July 2003); EMBASE (January 1980 to July 2003); CINAHL (January 1982 to July 2003); AMED (January 1985 to July 2003); Science Citation Index Expanded (searched January 1981 to March 2001); SIGLE (January 1980 to July 2003); DARE (July 2003); National Research Register (July 2003); NHS Economic Evaluations Database (March 2001); reference lists of articles and asked experts in the field.

Selection criteria:

Randomised controlled trials comparing disease management interventions specifically directed at patients with CHF to usual care.

Data collection and analysis:

At least two reviewers independently extracted data information and assessed study quality. Study authors were contacted for further information where necessary.

Main results:

Sixteen trials involving 1,627 people were included. We classified the interventions into three models: multidisciplinary interventions (a holistic approach bridging the gap between hospital admission and discharge home delivered by a team); case management interventions (intense monitoring of patients following discharge often involving telephone follow up and home visits); and clinic interventions (follow up in a CHF clinic). There was considerable overlap within these categories, however the components, intensity and duration of the interventions varied.

Case management interventions tended to be associated with reduced all cause mortality but these findings were not statistically significant (odds ratio 0.86, 95% confidence interval 0.67 to 1.10, P = 0.23), although the evidence was stronger when analysis was limited to the better quality studies (odds ratio 0.68, 95% confidence interval 0.46 to 0.98, P = 0.04). There was weak evidence that case management interventions may be associated with a reduction in admissions for heart failure. It is unclear what the effective components of the case management interventions are.

The single RCT of a multidisciplinary intervention showed reduced heart-failure related re-admissions in the short term. At present there is little available evidence to support clinic based interventions.

Authors' conclusions:

The data from this review are insufficient for forming recommendations. Further research should include adequately powered, multi-centre studies. Future studies should also investigate the effect of interventions on patients' and carers' quality of life, their satisfaction with the interventions and cost effectiveness.

This record should be cited as:

Taylor SJC, Bestall JC, Cotter S, Falshaw M, Hood SG, Parsons S, Wood L, Underwood M. Clinical service organisation for heart failure. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2005, Issue 2. Art. No.: CD002752. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD002752.pub2

Assessed as up to date:

February 1, 2005

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Primary Review Group:

Heart Group

Health topics:

Heart & circulation > Heart failure > Organization of care

Cochrane Summaries^beta

Independent high-quality evidence for health care decision making

Intense monitoring of patients with chronic heart failure following discharge from hospital - more studies needed.

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