The study, conducted by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and led by Professor of Nursing Mary Naylor, PhD, RN, demonstrates a model of care that has important implications for the nation's health care system. Elders with heart-failure typically have the highest rate of hospitalization, at a cost exceeding $24 billion annually. Further, the study points out that this patient group is representative of a growing segment of the U.S. population. Americans are living longer with chronic health problems and experiencing breakdowns in care during multiple transitions from hospital to home that affect their quality of life and consume substantial health care resources.
Six Philadelphia academic and community hospitals participated in the study -- the first multi-site assessment of a transitional care intervention targeting the serious health problems and risk factors common among elders throughout an acute episode of heart failure on a spectrum of clinical and economic outcomes. Advanced practice nurses (APNs, nurses with Master's degrees) coordinated the care provided by the patients' physicians, pharmacists, social workers, RNs, and other health team members for high risk older adults throughout an episode of acute illness.
The study found that while the total costs of providing this level of care for patients in the APN group was nearly double that provided to patients r
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Contact: Lanny Newman
newmanl@mail.nih.gov
301-496-0209
NIH/National Institutes of Health
13-May-2004