Percent of Heart Failure Patients Given Discharge Instructions
Why Is This Important?
Heart failure is a chronic condition. It results in symptoms such as shortness of breath, dizziness and fatigue. Before leaving the hospital, the staff should provide heart failure patients with information to help manage the symptoms at home.
About This Graph
Health care providers recognize that providing heart failure patients with appropriate instructions on proper activity, diet, medications, further medical care, etc., is important to their future health. The graph below indicates how well UMass Memorial Medical Center meets this standard as compared to other Massachusetts and U.S. hospitals. Higher percentages are better. (Graph data: Jan 2011- Dec 2011.)
How Are We Doing?
We have made significant improvements in heart failure patient discharge instructions recently in part due to increased awareness and education of physicians and our heart failure task force. In addition, the increased presence of dedicated advanced practice nurses on patient units where heart failure patients are admitted has contributed significantly to the improved education at discharge.