Abstract
With the initiation of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Hospital Readmission Reduction Program, hospitals are heavily penalized for heart failure patients who re-present to the hospital within 30-days for any cause. Patients also prefer to stay out of the hospital so they do not miss important life events and can live happily and comfortably in their own environments. Therefore, there has been a push to implement change projects to reduce hospital readmissions.
This project serves to implement the usage of the Heart Care Tool Kit, which is an educational aid to assist nurses in delivering proper heart failure education. The booklet includes education on diet, exercise, medications, disease process, identifying symptoms of exacerbation, and weight management. Currently, this booklet is not well utilized on the nursing units who discharge the bulk of heart failure patients. By receiving this booklet and verbal instruction on its use from the nursing staff, patients will have better tools to cope with their chronic disease process.
Multiple studies have shown that education leads to better self-care. When patients are able to care for themselves, many studies have shown they are less likely to re-present to the hospital. This project is very low risk and low cost with the potential for a high reward and pay off. Cost of the tool kit is negligible and there is no risk to providing increased education. The benefit of implementation is increased reimbursement for the hospital and increased quality of life for the patient.
Date of publication
Spring 4-17-2021
Document Type
MSN Capstone Project
Language
english
Persistent identifier
http://hdl.handle.net/10950/3671
Degree
Masters of Science in Nursing Administration
Recommended Citation
Peterson, Miranda P., "Utilizing Heart Failure Education Materials to Reduce Hospital Readmissions" (2021). MSN Capstone Projects. Paper 96.
http://hdl.handle.net/10950/3671