Disease management interventions to improve outcomes in congestive heart failure.

This study is part of a planned 24-month, multicenter, longitudinal comparison of a comprehensive congestive heart failure (CHF) disease management program and was designed to determine effectiveness after 12 months of implementation. The impact of interventions such as telemonitoring of patients, post-hospitalization follow-up, and provider education on selected primary outcomes (hospital admission and readmission rates, length of stay, total hospital days, and emergency room utilization) in a managed care setting was evaluated. Subjects in the study included all participants in the managed care plan, as well as 149 selected program participants. The effects of the program were analyzed for pure CHF and CHF-related diagnoses, with outcomes for the third quarter of 1996 (postintervention follow-up) being compared with those for the third quarter of 1995 (preintervention baseline). Overall, the data demonstrated significantly reduced admission and readmission rates for patients with the pure CHF diagnosis. Among the entire CHF patient population, the third quarter admission rate declined 63% (P = 0.00002), and the 30-day and 90-day readmission rates declined 75% (P = 0.02) and 74% (P = 0.004), respectively. Among program participants with pure CHF diagnoses, the 30-day readmission rate was reduced to 0, and an 83% reduction occurred for both the third quarter admission (P = 0.008) and 90-day readmission (P = 0.06) rates. In addition, the average length of stay for patients with CHF-related diagnoses was significantly reduced among both plan participants (P = 0.03) and program participants (P = 0.001). Reductions were also seen in total hospital days and emergency room utilization. These data thus indicate that a comprehensive disease management program can reduce healthcare utilization not only among CHF patients in the program but also among the entire managed care plan population.