Tag Archives: national heart failure audit

Improvements in patient care mean hundreds more people are surviving heart failure, a new independent study has found. The latest report from the National Heart Failure Audit (April 2015– March 2016) (link below) has found that the mortality rate for people admitted to hospital with heart failure has dropped from 9.6% the previous year to 8.9%. The reduction in the mortality rate means that in the region of 500 lives have been saved in the past year compared to 2014–15. An assessment of patients admitted to hospital with heart failure at NHS Trusts also shows that more people are being provided with crucial medicines for heart disease as

Systems of heart failure delivery Best practice tariff There is now a ‘best practice tariff’ (BPT) programme for heart failure (and for many other conditions). Professor Iain Squire (University of Leicester) reviewed the implications of this and discussed National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) quality standards for chronic heart failure (CHF). The first year of the BPT (April 2015–March 2016) was voluntary but it has been compulsory since the beginning of the 2016–2017 financial year. For the financial year 2016–2017, the tariff is worth a 5% uplift in the amount a trust is paid for each and every admission. It is

Counting the cost of acute heart failure In the first keynote lecture, Professor John McMurray (BHF Cardiovascular Research Centre, Glasgow) began by addressing the definition of acute heart failure (HF). He felt the term ‘acute’ was unhelpful, as it can be applied to a broad spectrum of clinical presentation, from the rapid onset of acute pulmonary oedema, to the subacute deterioration in chronic HF symptoms (predominantly peripheral oedema) that culminates in hospitalisation. Accordingly, the new 2013 American College of Cardiology Foundation (ACCF)/American Heart Association (AHA) HF guidelines refer to ‘the hospitalised patient’,

Audit The stage was set by Professor Theresa McDonagh (King’s College, London) who showed how the National Heart Failure Audit can be used as a tool to support business case development. Professor McDonagh highlighted that “data is power”. She discussed how the audit allows service providers to demonstrate to commissioners the potential gains that can be made by providing adequate services for patients admitted to hospital. In particular, the audit highlights how the best outcomes are achieved for patients who are admitted to hospital under the care of cardiologists and are subsequently followed up by a cardiologist. The next step, once

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Mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists Professor Faiez Zannad (Université de Lorraine, Nancy, France), the first of two guest lecturers, who has been an investigator in three major randomised controlled trials (RCT) of mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists (MRA) in heart failure,1-3 opened the first session. There was a particular focus on the recent EMPHASIS-HF trial,3 which recruited heart failure (HF) patients with left ventricular systolic dysfunction (ejection fraction [EF] ≤30%, or EF 30-35% with QRS duration >130 ms) and mild symptoms (New York Heart Association [NYHA] class II). Eplerenone treatment resulted in a 37% relative

Bureaucracy The mortality rate for heart failure remains unchanged with 11.6% of heart failure (HF) admissions dying as inpatients, and 33% mortality at around one year, according to the most recent data from the National Heart Failure Audit.  This was presented to the meeting by Professor Theresa McDonagh (King’s College Hospital, London). Data collection continues to improve with 85% of NHS trusts submitting data over the preceding 12 month period, she said.  Access to cardiology services was associated with improved outcomes and a higher usage of evidence-based therapy and subsequent access to outpatient HF services. The likely challen