Early follow-up at outpatient care after discharge improves long-term heart failure readmission rate and prognosis

Aims It has been reported that congestive heart failure (CHF) readmission has not decreased in the last decade. It is also reported that CHF readmission is likely to occur shortly after discharge. We investigated whether an early follow-up at outpatient care within 2 weeks after discharge affects the long-term readmission rate and prognosis. Methods and results We reviewed consecutive 1002 patients admitted to our hospital due to CHF. Two-hundred and fifty-nine patients who died in-hospital or were transferred to another hospital or readmitted within 2 weeks were excluded and 743 of discharged patients were analysed. We extracted contributing variables associated with heart failure (HF) readmission and the composite adverse outcome (all cause death or HF readmissions) by univariate and multivariate analysis. Multivariate analysis showed that the early follow-up was independently associated with freedom from HF readmission and the composite outcome. We divided these patients into two groups, with/without early follow-up and performed a propensity score-matching analysis (n = 259 each). HF readmission during 2 year follow-up was significantly less in the early follow-up group [P = 0.02, hazard ratio (HR) = 0.647, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.447-0.935] as well as the composite outcome was less in the early follow-up group (P = 0.01, HR = 0.643, 95% CI = 0.456-0.908). Medication adjustments were done in only 33.2% of the patients. Rates of HF readmissions were comparable regardless of whether or not medication adjustment was done at the early follow-up (P = 0.505, HR = 1.208, 95% CI = 0.692-2.106). Conclusions The present study demonstrates that an early follow-up approach after discharge in CHF patients may improve the long-term prognosis. These results may not depend on medication adjustment but rather on modifying patient factors early after discharge.