1109Enhancing transition from hospital to home for people with cardiovascular disease

Abstract Background Health care services have a responsibility to ensure transition from hospital to home is seamless as this is a vulnerable time for patients. In 2013 the Cardiac Rehabilitation (CR) and Heart Failure (HF) Management Programs at a large tertiary referral hospital in our city, were re-configured to become one cardiac service. This model of care incorporated management of patients along the continuum of cardiac illness from initial diagnosis to end stage disease including end stage heart failure and intractable angina. This model included nurse-led in-patient consultations, post-discharge case management, CR and HF education and exercise programs, HF titration clinics, and home visits. Within health-care, organisational design can be considered a variable and evolving tool for improving the quality of patient care. The redesign of two clinical services provided an opportunity to improve health-care delivery for patients with cardiovascular disease. Purpose To evaluate a patient centred post-discharge model of care for patients admitted to hospital for an acute cardiovascular event. Methods A retrospective analysis of routinely collected data was undertaken using standard descriptive statistics to report the number of in-patient consultations, referrals generated, patients case-managed and all cause unplanned readmissions within 28 days of hospital discharge. Results Data was analysed from 1 January 2014 to 31 December 2018. Over the 5 years 11929 in-patients with cardiovascular disease received consultations from specialised nursing staff employed in the amalgamated cardiac service and 10598 (89%) patients were referred to appropriate post discharge CR and HF programs. From the in-patient consultations, 2254 (21%) patients who lived within our geographical area were case-managed by our specialist nursing staff. Post-discharge follow-up within 14 days was achieved for 1917 (85%) of these patients. Of the 2254 patients, 322 (14%) had an unplanned all cause readmission within 28 days of hospital discharge. Conclusion The evaluation data indicates that our model of integrated care provided effective post discharge management for patients with cardiac disease. Developing a model of care for these patients is challenging as they need to engage in self-care and adhere to a complex medication regime often with changing dosages. However effective case management post discharge including secondary prevention programs can decrease readmissions and improve outcomes for these patients.