Heart Failure
Conditions
Brief summary
This study determines if a community of practice of clinicians and quality improvement specialists can be used to implement a national quality initiative known as Hospital to Home (H2H). This quality initative is designed to reduced readmission rates for patients with heart failure or heart attack by improving the transition of care upon discharge.
Interventions
OTHERCommunity of Practice Facilitation
OTHERUsual Care
Sponsors
VA Palo Alto Health Care System
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH
Masking
SINGLE (Outcomes Assessor)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
* VA medical centers are the unit of randomization. A medical center will be included if had at least 20 patients discharged with a principal diagnosis of heart failure in 2008
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| H2H enrollment | 6 months | H2H enrollment by the facility as determined by the H2H program of the American College of Cardiology and Institute for Healthcare Improvement |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| quality improvement programs initiated due to H2H | 6 months | A new quality improvement initiated that addressess one of the 3 areas of H2H focus. These include, medication reconcilliation, early follow-up after discharge, and symptom recognition. |
Countries
United States
Outcome results
None listed