Practical guide on home health in heart failure patients

Introduction: Chronic heart failure is a common condition affecting up to 15 million people in the extended Europe. Heart failure is burdensome and costly for patients in terms of decreased quality of life and poor prognosis and it is also costly for society. Better integrated care is warranted in this population and specialized heart failure care can save costs and improve the quality of care. However, only a few European countries have implemented specialized home care and offered this to a larger number of patients with heart failure.

Method: We developed a guide on Home Health in Heart Failure patients from a literature review, a survey of heart failure management programs, the opinion of researchers and practitioners, data from clinical trials and a reflection of an international expert meeting.

Results: In integrated home care for heart failure patients it is advised to consider the following components: integrated multi-disciplinary care, patient and partner participation, care plans with clear goals of care, patient education, self-care management, appropriate access to care and optimized treatment.

Discussion: We summarized the state of the art of home based care for heart failure patients in Europe, described the typical content of such care to provide a guide for health care providers.