Home administration of intravenous diuretics to heart failure patients

"Originally a 2-year pilot programme to assess safe and effective ways for specialist nursing teams to administer intravenous (IV) diuretics to people at home or in a day-care setting, preventing hospital admissions and improving patient experience. Without this service patients would be admitted to hospital to receive IV diuretics."

Home administration of intravenous diuretics to heart failure patients: Increasing productivity and improving quality of care
Quality and Productivity case study
British Heart Foundation
June 2015

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European Collaboration for Healthcare Optimisation Atlas reports

"ECHO performance Atlases report unwarranted differences in health systems performance across ECHO countries. Atlas reports on cardiovascular care, lower value care and potentially avoidable admissions have been yielded. These reports feature international and in-country variations in performance, its evolution over-time, the effect of socioeconomic gradient, and provide some policy messages derived from the results."

European Collaboration for Healthcare Optimisation Atlas reports
February 2014

Access the Atlases here.

Outcomes in patients with heart failure treated in hospitals with varying admission rates

"Heart failure admission rates exhibited variability between institutions, and patients who presented to emergency departments with low admission rates experienced higher rates of subsequent adverse outcomes in a single-payer health system."

Outcomes in patients with heart failure treated in hospitals with varying admission rates: population-based cohort study
RS Bhatia, PC Austin, TA Stukel, MJ Schull, A Chong, JV Tu, DS Lee
BMJ Quality and Safety 2014;23:981-988 doi:10.1136/bmjqs-2014-002816

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NHS hospitals under pressure: trends in acute activity up to 2022

"In this analysis we look at trends in admissions and bed use over the last few years, and use population projections to explore the likely pressures on hospitals in the future."

NHS hospitals under pressure: trends in acute activity up to 2022
P Smith, A McKeon, I Blunt, N Edwards
Nuffield Trust
October 2014

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Community services: How they can transform care

"The ambition to move care closer to home has resulted in some reduction in lengths of stay in hospital, but further significant changes are needed in the way care is delivered."

Community services: How they can transform care
Nigel Edwards
The King's Fund
February 2014

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The growing role of Emergency Departments in hospital admissions

"Growing use of U.S. emergency departments (EDs), cited as a key contributor to rising health care costs, has become a leading target of health care reform."

The growing role of Emergency Departments in hospital admissions
JD Schuur, AK Venkatesh
New England Journal of Medicine, 2012, 367(5):391-393

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The relationship between hospital admission rates and rehospitalizations

"We found a substantial association between regional rates of rehospitalization and overall admission rates."

The relationship between hospital admission rates and rehospitalizations
AM Epstein, AK Jha, EJ Orav
New England Journal of Medicine, 2011, 365:2287-2295

Read more here.