The Importance of a Heart Failure Unit in Reducing the Number of Emergency Episodes and Hospital Admissions

Introduction: Heart failure (HF) is a complex and multifactorial clinical syndrome with high morbidity and mortality and high healthcare costs. The integration of patients with HF into special and multidisciplinary follow-up programs aims to improve quality of life by reducing adverse events and economic costs. The aim of this work is to analyse the impact of a HF unit of the Internal Medicine Service in reducing emergency episodes and hospitalizations related to HF. Methods: This is a retrospective observational study that compares the proportion of adverse events related to HF between the period up to six months before and the period six months after patients were admitted to the HF unit through the Emergency Service and hospitalizations. The comparison was performed using the McNemar test. Results: The difference in the proportion of adverse events between the period up to six months before (66%) and the period six months after admission to the unit (31%) was statistically significant (p <0.001). Conclusion: The work of the HF unit has a positive effect on reducing the number of adverse events in these patients, removing them from the decompensation conditions that overload emergency services and hospital beds.