P3160Economic impact assessment of reducing heart failure related hospitalizations in Alberta, Canada by a community-based outpatient heart failure clinic

Abstract

Background: Currently, there are 600,000 Canadians living with heart failure (HF) with 50,000 Canadians being diagnosed every year with HF. HF in Canada costs over $2.8 billion per year. There is no cure for HF, and HF patients have long and frequent hospital stays, resulting in high healthcare costs. Communitybased heart failure clinics have been proven to reduce hospitalizations, but Alberta has only one. The CHARM (Community Heart Failure Assessment, Rehabilitation and Management) clinic at Advanced Cardiology, Calgary, Alberta is a community based, charity-run, publically funded clinic providing outpatient care, which is physician-directed but RN managed. The aim of this study was to perform an economic impact assessment and the healthcare costs saved by the CHARM clinic during January 2016 to February 2017. Method(s): The demographic and clinical data of the patients visiting the CHARM clinic was extracted from patient charts and from the NETCARE system. The average HF-related hospitalization cost per patient in Canada was derived from previously published literature and from inflation data from Statistics Canada. Using the calculated average HF-related cost and multiplying it by the number of hospitalizations saved by the CHARM clinic, we calculated the total healthcare cost saved by the CHARM clinic between Jan 2016 and Feb 2017. Result(s): During the time period examined, there were a total of 162 HF patients in the CHARM clinic with an average age of 67.6 years. The patient population was predominantly male. During the January 2016 to February 2017 time period, CHARM clinic prevented 68 HF-related hospitalizations. In Canada, the average HF-related hospitalization cost per patient was calculated to be approximately $11,600. Based on this cost, CHARM clinic saved $788,800 in healthcare costs during the time period examined.We also to determine the cost saved by CHARM clinic from its inception to February 2018. Conclusion(s): Our findings show the importance of community-based clinics in reducing hospitalization costs. The main goals of CHARM clinic are to 1) help keep patients in the community and out of the hospital, which would reduce healthcare costs; and 2) provide assistance to HF patients with self-management, education and optimizing medications, which would improve patient outcomes and survival. Currently, CHARM clinic is working at a bare minimum on a charitable basis without any funding and is supported by proceeds raised from donations and DIL-Walk foundation fundraising events. The clinic has several other initiatives in the pipeline which would further reduce HF-related hospitalization costs. In conclusion, government's support of community-based clinics could play a significant role in saving healthcare costs and improving patient outcomes.