Impact of a Telephonic Outreach Program on Patient Outcomes Within the Heart Failure Community.

Background: Telephonic outreach programs (TOPs) can be an effective measure to improve 30-day readmissions and self-management behaviors.

Local Problem: Our health care providers identified that patients admitted with heart failure (HF) were among those with the highest readmission rate, so we implemented a TOP specific to HF.

Methods: This project evaluated retrospective data from a convenience sample of adult patients admitted to our hospitals between January 2015 and June 2017, with a primary diagnosis of HF, and discharged home (N = 6271).