Identification of high risk patients who are prone to early hospital readmissions for congestive heart failure

Abstract

Multiple hospital admissions (MA) in patients with congestive heart failure (CHF) are a major social and economic concern, but factors predictive of MA have not been clarified. Therefore, we evaluated 249 patients with 545 MA for CHF (22 admissions in 3.5 yr, range 1-10 admissions). The study group comprised 133 men (63 yr, range 21-93) and 116 women (69 yr, range 33-100). More than half of the patients (55%, n=136) had a history of early readmission (ERA) for CHF (≤90 days following the initial CHF discharge) (group I). These patients averaged 2.9 admissions (range 1-10) for CHF during the study period. By contrast, patients without a history of ERA (group II) (45%, n=113) averaged only 1.2 admissions (range 1-4, p