A Practice Change Project to Decrease Heart Failure Readmission Rates

Abstract

Heart failure is a complex health condition that affects many individuals and families. This condition requires the implementation of self-management interventions after hospital discharge to reduce incidences of hospital readmission. The Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program was enacted by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in 2012 to financially penalize hospital organizations that exceeded the readmission benchmark for specific medical diagnoses such as heart failure. The purpose of this DNP project was to implement a practice change project within an organization to decrease 30-day hospital readmission rates for patients admitted with heart failure to prevent payment reduction. This project aimed to implement a standardized process of nurse-led patient education to inform patients and their families of self-care measures to manage heart failure and ensure an effective transition from hospital to home. This project demonstrated that face-to-face nurse-led education positively affected patient outcomes within the organization and reduced 30-day hospital readmission rates for patients with heart failure.