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Keep The Beat With Heart Failure Education: A Quality Improvement Project, Brenda L. Peterson Dec 2018

Keep The Beat With Heart Failure Education: A Quality Improvement Project, Brenda L. Peterson

Master's Projects and Capstones

Abstract

Problem: Heart failure (HF), also known as congestive heart failure (CHF), is the number one diagnosis-related group (DRG) for people 65 years of age and older in the United States. This disease group is complicated and debilitating, requiring frequent hospitalizations with high mortality rates. The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) has identified CHF as an area for improvement in hospitals.

Context: This was a quality improvement project for an integrated medical center in the Central Valley, California with over 19,000 HF patients. In 2018, for patients 65 years and older, HF is the third-most admitted DRG …


Standardizing The Palliative Care Referral Process, Ronaviv M. Garcia Aug 2018

Standardizing The Palliative Care Referral Process, Ronaviv M. Garcia

Master's Projects and Capstones

Standardizing the Palliative Care Referral Process

Problem: Heart failure (HF) is one of the most common causes of hospital admissions and emergency department visits in the United States. HF patients are at high risk for hospital readmission: 25% of HF patients discharged from the hospital are readmitted within 30 days of discharge, and 50% are readmitted within 6 months (Vedel & Khanossov, 2015).

Context: Palliative Care (PC) has been shown to be an effective way of managing distressing HF symptoms and thus of reducing hospital readmissions, yet patients are infrequently referred to PC services during their transition from hospital to …