Lack of improvement of clinical outcomes by a low-cost, hospital-based heart failure management programme.

Objective: Heart failure (HF) is a major health problem resulting in a high financial burden for the healthcare system. Many previous HF management programmes reduced adverse clinical outcomes and costs, but they usually involved several professional figures as well as huge investments, requiring resources and budgets not often available in our healthcare system. We evaluated the effects of our HF management programme, which included patient education and regular outpatient contact with the HF team, on re-hospitalisation and death, optimising the few resources already available at our hospital.