Increased life expectancy of heart failure patients in a rural center by a multidisciplinary program

Type of funding sources: None.

INTRODUCTION Patients with heart failure (HF) have a reduced life expectancy compared to the general spanish population and with other chronic diseases.  In order to, multidisciplinary management units have been created.

to evaluate the efficacy of multidisciplinary care by Cardiology and Nursing in the improvement of life expectancy related to HF in a rural center.

Patients with HF included in the first 6 months of the program were analyzed. BioHF calculator variables were compared at the beginning and at the end of the 6-month. The BCN BioHF calculator includes clinical, medical treatment, and biomarker variables (table 1). The multidisciplinary care program consisted of:

- Scheduled care with face-to-face consultations with the nurse and cardiologist  Optimization of treatment according to clinical practice guidelines.

- Unscheduled care for dose adjustment and frequent follow-up.  Targeting of treatment optimization.

- Phone care: for selected cases of difficult access to the health center (rural environment, limited mobility, etc.).

- Group educational sessions.

In the first 6 months, 12 patients diagnosed with HF with an mean age of 74 years were included.  33% were women and 67% male. The program consisted of a total of 20 scheduled care with nurses, 8 telephone care and 2 group educational sessions. Using the validated BCN bioHF calculator, it was calculated that the mean life expectancy before the intervention was 4.33 years and after the program was 6 years, this represents an increase of 1.7 years in the mean life expectancy (image 1).

In our rural center, it was demonstrated the improvement in the estimation of the life expectancy of the patients with CI due to multidisciplinary program.

Table 1

Abstract Figure. Image 1