Yale CHF Management Fails to IMProve Outcomes

[Guest guest]

I wonder if IMP practices could demonstrate reduction in chf readmission rates and costs where Yale failed. Interestingly - a call for restructuring chronic disease treatment by the author of the study.

Ben

From the WSJ...

Monitoring Heart-Failure Patients: Hospitals are under growing pressure to reduce readmissions for congestive heart failure. It is the federal Medicare program's most expensive diagnosis with the cost of potentially preventable admissions amounting to about $12 billion a year. Several small studies have found that daily monitoring of weight and other symptoms can lead to quick adjustments to a patient's diet or medication and prevent the need for hospital stays. But when Yale's Dr. Krumholz and his colleagues tested the idea in a 1,653-patient study, they found no significant reduction in readmissions or improvement in survival.

"I don't think you want to throw out an entire strategy because of a couple of trials," says Dr, Krumholz, whose study was published last week in the New England Journal of Medicine. "But just merely monitoring these patients and reacting seems to be insufficient. You need a restructuring of how you're managing chronic disease."