Enhancing Outpatient Referrals to Heart Failure Clinics

Heart failure patients require complex and specialized treatment that can be provided for in a heart failure clinic. Heart failure is extremely complex and the recommendations for management require observation and diligence. Lindberg et al. (2022), recommends patients with heart failure receive specialized care from providers trained in optimizing therapy, especially patients with new onset heart failure, worsening heart failure, or those unable to tolerate first-line treatments in optimal doses. Patients require referrals to the providers specializing in heart failure management. This study created a comprehensive outpatient referral form for outpatient providers utilizing published heart failure referral forms, heart failure guidelines, and input from the hospital’s cardiologists. The Delphi method was utilized to identify key factors from the cardiologists as experts through two rounds of anonymous evaluation of the outpatient referral form. Recommendations for modification from the first round were integrated into the form and presented for the second round. The finalized referral form was provided to the hospital’s cardiologists for use in the referral process.