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SHM campaign targets acute heart failure

Hospitalist Leadership Connection, February 7, 2007

The Society of Hospital Medicine (SHM) reported in its February e-newsletter the launch of a campaign on quality improvement related to acute heart failure. Scios, Inc., will provide a portion of the funding.

The campaign will focus on the "front end of the acutely decompensated heart failure patient admission," according to the society. The priorities of the program are early diagnosis, aggressive treatment, and intervention (including emergency department and observation unit care) to optimize outcomes, the SHM states.

According to "Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics-2006 Update: A Report From the American Heart Association Statistics Committee and Stroke Statistics Subcommittee" published in Circulation in January 2006, hospitalists manage the majority of heart failure patients and the condition is the most common diagnosis in hospitalized patients older than 65. Further, the one-third of patients hospitalized for heart failure are readmitted to the hospital within three months, the Circulation article states.

To access SHM's heart failure resource room on the Web, click here.

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