Home-Time, Mortality, and Readmissions Among Patients Hospitalized With Heart Failure: A Baseline Prior to IMPLEMENT-HF | Circulation: Heart Failure
BACKGROUND: Home-time is an emerging, patient-centered outcome that represents the amount of time a patient spends alive and outside of health care facility settings, comprising of hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, and acute rehabilitation centers. Studies evaluating home-time in the context of heart failure are limited, and the impact of quality improvement interventions on home-time has not been studied. METHODS: Medicare beneficiaries aged 65 years or older who were hospitalized for heart failure in the Get With the Guidelines-Heart Failure registry between 2019 and 2021 were included. Postdischarge home-time, mortality, and readmission rates at 30 days and 1 year were calculated with the goal of establishing baseline metrics before the initiation of IMPLEMENT-HF, a multicenter quality improvement program aimed at improving heart failure management. RESULTS: Overall, 66 019 patients were included across 437 sites. Median 30-day and 1-year home-time were 30 (18–30) and 333 (139–