Heart failure is a decrease in the efficiency of the heart and its ability to provide an entire blood supply to the body. Pathology of both acute and chronic courses is not an independent disease but develops as a complication of other conditions. This is one of the most common causes of death of a patient, and only emergency hospitalization for heart failure can save a person’s life. Patients are frequently readmitted to hospitals, but this can be prevented by raising awareness of heart failure and the benefits of proper precaution.
Patients are people at risk for heart failure readmissions which are primarily women. Intervention is the conducting of educational campaigns about heart failure prevention. A comparison is made between readmission rates before and after educational campaigns. The outcome there is a decrease in readmissions of patients with heart failure. Many scientists have researched the issue of frequent heart failure hospitalizations. The background of the chosen source is that The National Institutes of Health and the American Heart Association jointly publish publications every year with the most recent data on heart disease (Virani et al., 2020). The methodology includes measures to gauge and track the impact of healthy diets and the American Heart Association’s 2020 Impact Goals on population cardiovascular health (Virani et al., 2020). The study’s evidence is a D level because it involves expert opinion and has an extensive database.
The research analyzes data from the Statistics Committee, grouping them by disease, demographics, and years and comparing them. A lot of personal data was used for use, but there is no mention of names in the text, only generalized information, which is an ethical consideration. The quality rating of the study is high because the most current data was used and compared with past similar studies. The study is valuable for my EBP as it has data on major trends, causes, and heart failure patients.
The background of the second chosen source is that heart failure patients are readmitted to hospitals at a very high rate after being discharged. The evidence is a study of the effect of the Hospital Readmission Reduction Program (HRRP) on heart failure (Khan et al., 2021). The evidence given in the study is 3a, as it is a systematic study, and the data is from 2010 to 2017 (Khan et al., 2021). The quality rating of the study is not the highest because low-volume hospitals were not included. This study is essential to my work, as it considers the impact and consequences of implementing a program similar to my proposals.
My recommendation is to provide education on the causes and prevention of heart failure among patients. The target audience, older people, is selected based on the first study, and some actionable methods are taken from the second. Non-governmental health organizations, representatives of nursing homes, and the nursing association will be my main stakeholders. I will present to them the significant number of readmissions that result in higher costs and health deterioration and my action plan to get them involved. The main obstacle will be that the organization of training in heart failure requires a large budget. To overcome the obstacle, I will demonstrate that over time the education budget will be balanced by a reduction in patients since, as was mentioned, repeated hospitalization also results in additional expenses. The outcome that will allow assessing the program’s success will be decreased heart failure readmissions among patients.
References
Khan, M. S., Sreenivasan, J., Lateef, N., Abougergi, M. S., Greene, S. J., Ahmad, T., Anker, S. D., Fonarow, G. C., & Januzzi, J. L. (2021). Trends in 30- and 90-Day Readmission Rates for Heart Failure. Circulation-Heart Failure, 14(4).
Virani, S. S., Alonso, A., Benjamin, E. J., Bittencourt, M. S., Callaway, C. W., Carson, A. P., Chamberlain, A. M., Chang, A. R., Cheng, S., Delling, F. N., Djoussé, L., Elkind, M. S., Ferguson, J. F., Fornage, M., Khan, S. S., Kissela, B. M., Knutson, K. L., Kwan, T. W., Lackland, D. T., … Tsao, C. W. (2020). Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics—2020 Update: A Report from the American Heart Association. Circulation, 141(9).