Veterans Affairs Lowering Readmission in Heart Failure

Completed · Not applicable

Conditions studied: Heart Failure

In brief

Heart failure (HF) greatly increases mortality and lowers quality of life (QOL). HF is the most common indication for readmission in older adults and the most frequent reason for 30-day readmission. Medications and restriction of dietary sodium constitute crucial therapy to lower HF recurrence. However, adherence to medications and dietary recommendations is low in HF patients. Nonadherence is often due to an interaction among the environment, the patient and providers. In the VALOR in Heart Failure Study, we will assess a novel quality improvement program (QIP) to improve HF care using a pretest-posttest design. This interdisciplinary theory-based prospective experimental study will target improving HF treatment using patient-based behavioral and checklist intervention, as well as provider and system-targeted checklists and treatment defaults (posttest or intervention phase); this will be compared to current best practice (CBP) evaluated in the pretest (pretest or pre-intervention) phase. It is hypothesized that the QIP, which intervenes on patient, provider and system levels, will improve QOL and lower HF recurrence compared to CBP.

Key facts

Study ID

NCT01144182

Run by

VA Office of Research and Development

People needed

136

Starts

2010-10-01

Expected to finish

2013-09-01

Last updated by the study team

2015-10-16

Who can join

Age: 21 and older. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: not accepted.

You may qualify if…

• All patients admitted with either systolic or diastolic HF will be identified through ongoing daily prospective manual search of admission records in VA NYHHS
• Men and women ( 21 years) being discharged after a HF admission will be eligible
• They must have an available phone

You may not qualify if…

• Patients with poor short-term survival (< 3 months)
• recent major surgery (< 1 month)
• planned discharge to a long-term-care facility
• severe dementia or other serious psychiatric illness
• temporarily in the area
• those unable to provide consent, refusal to participate
• logistic or discretionary reasons (including participation in another study) will be excluded

Where it is running

• VA New York Harbor Health Care System — New York, New York, United States

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

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