Investigation of frequency and causes of rehospitalization for patients with heart failure

Objective: To investigate the frequency and causes of repeated hospitalization for patients with heart failure diagnosis.Procedure: The research, which is a descriptive study, was conducted at the cardiology clinics of two university hospitals between February 2009 and April 2009. The sample for this research consisted of 137 patients who comply with the criteria for inclusion in the study.Patient identification form, Index of Having Multiple Diseases (Comorbidity Index), and Katz Index of Daily Living Activities were used as the data collection tools. The data were collected from face-to-face interviews and medical records. The data were evaluated by the chi-square test and one-way analysis of variance.Results: It was found that 21.9% of the individuals participated in the research were rehospitalized twice, 27.7% were rehospitalized three times, and 50.4% were rehospitalized four times or more, the average age and diagnosis time of patients were significantly high for the group with hospitalization frequency of four or more, the number of patients who belong to the heart failure functional classes of NYHA III and IV and were hospitalized four times or more was significantly high, the left ventricular EF percentage of patients for the group with hospitalization frequency of four or more was lower compared to those hospitalized twice, and the mean scores of daily living activities were significantly lower for the group with hospitalization frequency of four or more.Conclusions and recommendations: The results of this study have shown that the repeated hospitalization frequency is considerably high for patients with heart failure. Because the repeated hospitalization frequency is high for elderly patients and patients with long diagnosis times, low left ventricular ejection fraction percentages, high NYHA classifications, and low average scores of daily living activities, it is recommended that nurses monitor this group of patients more closely, the causes of their repeated hospitalizations are examined qualitatively, and interventional studies are conducted to reduce repeated hospitalization.Keywords: Heart failure, repeated hospitalization, activities of daily living, NYHA classification, nursing.