IMPACT OF SPECIALIZED HEART FAILURE OUTPATIENT UNITS ON THE PREVALENCE OF HOSPITALISATIONS DUE TO CONGESTIVE HEART FAILURE IN DIFFERENT REGIONS OF AUSTRIA

Background and Aim: Heart Failure (HF) is one of the most important reasons for hospitalisation. Chronic HF patients (pts) characteristically present with multiple re-admissions for acute decompensation and represent a major burden on national healthcare costs. Special care, in form of HF-outpatient units have been organized and their impact on the decrease of recurrent hospital readmissons was investigated.
Methods: Data from the Austrian Department for Statistics 2000 and 2004 concerning pts admitted to a hospital in Austria because of acutely decompensated HF (based on the ICD-10 Code) with focus on regional differences were investigated.
Results: 31,243 consecutive pts with Congestive HF (CHF) were registered in the year 2000 compared to 26,030 pts in 2004 resulting in a total decline of 5213 pts (17%). A decline in hospitalisations (hosps) due to HF between 4 - 47% could be demonstrated in 8 out of 9 regions of Austria, while only one region in Austria showed an increase of hosps (21%). Two regions showed a dramatic decrease (28 an 47%), while in 6 regions a moderate reduction of hosps was seen (4-10%). The distribution of HF services in relation to the number of inhabitants are given in Figure 2.
Conclusion: A decline of hosps due to HF was observed in most but one region in Austria. The prominent decrease of HF admissions in Vienna might be explained not only by the organisation of special care outpatient wards but also by a pilot project providing home nurse care which was performed in the years 2002-2004, while the wide range of inhabitant numbers/special HF care unit (105.000 to 279.000) had no influence on the quality of care. The installation of specialized HF services are important contributions to increased quality care of chronic HF pts ending up in a lower re-hospitalisation rate.