Congestive heart failure: Where you go matters a lot

The Annals of Internal Medicine has just reported on a large-scale study at more than 4,000 U.S. hospitals which showed that thirty-day survival rates for patients diagnosed with congestive heart failure were more than twenty percent better among those who went to hospitals more accustomed to providing care for the condition. The study found though that the cost of treating each patient was on average $1200 more in a high-volume hospital compared with a low-volume hospital.

Since the study considered more than one million patients, ACSH’s Dr. Elizabeth Whelan notes this means that the 20,000 people each year who went to the better hospitals and are alive longer cost just $24 million more to treat. This contrasts with a total domestic cost for caring for the victims of congestive heart failure of $29 billion.

ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross says, “This is pretty important news. Congestive heart failure is the most common diagnosis causing older people to be admitted to hospitals. Should this be true that the means to improve care is referring patients to high-volume hospitals, these findings are certainly worth noting.”