Reducing Readmissions among Heart Failure Patients Discharged to Home Health Care: Effectiveness of Early and Intensive Nursing Services and Early Physician Follow-Up.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To compare the effectiveness of two "treatments"-early, intensive home health nursing and physician follow-up within a week-versus less intense and later postacute care in reducing readmissions among heart failure (HF) patients discharged to home health care.

Data sources

National Medicare administrative, claims, and patient assessment data.

Study design

Patients with a full week of potential exposure to the treatments were followed for 30 days to determine exposure status, 30-day all-cause hospital readmission, other health care use, and mortality. An extension of instrumental variables methods for nonlinear statistical models corrects for nonrandom selection of patients into treatment categories. Our instruments are the index hospital's rate of early after

SUBMITTER: Murtaugh CM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5517672 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature