Factors Associated with Adherence to 14-Day Office Appointments after Heart Failure Discharge.

Link to article at PubMed

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Factors Associated with Adherence to 14-Day Office Appointments after Heart Failure Discharge.

J Card Fail. 2018 Apr 25;:

Authors: Distelhorst K, Claussen R, Dion K, Bena JF, Morrison SL, Walker D, Tai HL, Albert NM

Abstract
BACKGROUND: Follow-up within 14 days after hospital discharge for heart failure (HF) may prevent 30-day hospital readmission, but adherence varies. The purpose of this study was to determine predictors of non-adherence to scheduled appointments.
METHODS AND RESULTS: A medical record review included patients hospitalized for decompensated HF at 3 health system hospitals, and who had a scheduled 14-day office appointment. Patient demographics, and social, HF and hospital factors were studied for association with appointment adherence. Multivariable modeling was used to determine the odds of missing scheduled appointments. Of 701 cases, mean (SD) age was 73.5 (13.8) years, 46.4% were female and 38.9% were non-white. Appointment non-adherence was 16.2%. In multivariate analyses, 4 factors predicted missed appointments: drug use history (odds ratio [OR], 95% confidence interval [CI], 3.95 [1.70, 9.20] p< 0.001), non-white race (OR 1.85 [CI, 1.08, 3.16], p=0.024), pulmonary disease (OR 1.80 [CI, 1.12, 2.87], p=0.014) and anemia (OR 1.58 [CI, 1.01, 2.46], p=0.044). Scheduling appointments post- vs. pre-discharge was not associated with missed appointments (OR 0.72 [CI 0.45, 1.15], p=0.17).
CONCLUSIONS: Findings may help practitioners identify patients who are likely to miss a follow up visit as all 4 predictors were easily retrievable from medical records during hospitalization.

PMID: 29704619 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

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