Utilizing Home Healthcare Electronic Health Records for Telehomecare Patients With Heart Failure: A Decision Tree Approach to Detect Associations With Rehospitalizations.

Heart failure is a complex condition with a significant impact on patients' lives. A few studies have identified risk factors associated with rehospitalization among telehomecare patients with heart failure using logistic regression or survival analysis models. To date, there are no published studies that have used data mining techniques to detect associations with rehospitalizations among telehomecare patients with heart failure. This study is a secondary analysis of the home healthcare electronic medical record called the Outcome and Assessment Information Set-C for 552 telemonitored heart failure patients. Bivariate analyses using SAS and a decision tree technique using Waikato Environment for Knowledge Analysis were used. From the decision tree technique, the presence of skin issues was identified as the top predictor of rehospitalization that could be identified during the start of care assessment, followed by patient's living situation, patient's overall health status, severe pain experiences, frequency of activity-limiting pain, and total number of anticipated therapy visits combined. Examining risk factors for rehospitalization from the Outcome and Assessment Information Set-C database using a decision tree approach among a cohort of telehomecare patients provided a broad understanding of the characteristics of patients who are appropriate for the use of telehomecare or who need additional supports.