Tasmanian Study of Heart failure readmission Prevention (TAS-HELP)

Acute heart failure (HF) is related to around 100,000 admissions per year and $1 billion spending in Australia, a problem comparable to the million hospitalisations per year and US$37 billion in health care spending annually in the United States. HF accounts for approximately 1% of all hospital separations in Australia, and approximately 10% of those are due to circulatory disease, a frequency of 1.6-2.0 per 1000 population. The average length of stay of HF is 5 days; inpatient treatment accounts for two-thirds of the cost of HF. An additional complexity in Australia is that 26% of HF patients live in rural and remote environments. In contrast to recent improvement in the mortality of HF in the community, hospitalisation with HF continues to have mortality as high as 15% within 2 months of discharge.

Randomized controlled trial
Decompensation of previously stable HF can be provoked by a variety of factors ranging from treatment adherence to intercurrent illness and progression of the disease. Early detection of this process using a variety of clinical and imaging strategies may allow early treatment with parenteral diuretics at home, a strategy which has been shown to allow re-stabilisation at home in 72% of patients. Moreover, additional support at home is likely to facilitate effective hospital-based initiatives to reduce admissions.

Who are we looking for:
Admission with HF at RHH, age 18 years or older

This project is a participant based study

Research Groups

Related Diseases

Staff

Team Leaders

Team Members