Dr Amar Bhakta Explains a New Pathway to Prevent Heart Failure Readmissions

A new pathway uses a multidisciplinary team to help reduce 30-day heart failure readmissions, explained Amar Bhakta, MD, of Rush University Medical Center.

Transcript

What was the pathway to prevent heart failure readmissions that you presented at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions?

This pathway came about just because with the increase in healthcare costs, ways to reduce healthcare costs, especially with heart failure readmissions, I think what we found was we were able to reduce it if we developed a multidisciplinary team. And using that team over a period of 6 months, we found that we were able to reduce heart failure 30-day readmissions from 22% down to 16%.

Who are the team members in the multidisciplinary pathway and what were their roles?

The multidisciplinary team included a heart failure specialist, other physicians, pharmacists, social workers, nurses, and nurse practitioners. We designed a pathway from inpatient admission all the way up to discharge and then beyond discharge, as well, and outpatient setting, including following up with a nurse practitioner, a heart failure nurse practitioner specialist, within 7 days, and then with their PCP within 3 weeks.