Multidisciplinary Heart Failure Care Program: An Experience From Colombia.

The prevalence of Heart Failure is growing alarmingly; its treatment consumes health resources and affects the quality of life of patients. To describe the changes in NYHA functional Class, ejection fraction, hospitalizations, and mortality after 8 years of follow up in a multidisciplinary heart failure program in Colombia as a model for lower and middle income countries. An observational study was performed with the retrospective analysis of the information. 1757 patients were included, The NYHA functional class at the beginning of the program was: NYHA I 23.5%, NYHA II 50.3%, NYHA class Improvement was observed at the end of the follow-up with an increase in the percentage of patients in Functional Class NYHA I and II. The reduction in hospitalizations were 35% less (mean: 0.68 ± 0.95, P < 0.0001), a reduction in the length of stay in the hospital was 13.2% (before: 4.46 ± 7.16, after 3.87 ± 8.1 days, P < 0.001). The total mortality after eight years of follow-up was 6.6 % (n = 116). Multidisciplinary follow-up in Heart Failure (HF) programs improves Functional Class and EF, decreases hospital admissions as well as hospitalization and the length of stay. This is a very simple and successful model of care for this disease that can be implemented for countries of lower- and middle-income countries.