Inpatient heart failure treatment from the patient's perspective.

Objective: The objective of this study was 2-fold: (1) to identify particular opportunities for improvement in patient-centered care of heart failure patients and (2) to suggest strategies for service quality improvement focusing on those areas.

Sample: A national cross-sectional sample of survey data from diagnostic-related group 127 patients was collected between December 1, 2001, and November 30, 2003. Data were split into two 12-month samples to compare results over time. The 2002 sample included 5224 patients treated at 220 hospitals; the 2003 sample included 6531 patients treated at 269 hospitals.

Method: A standardized mail-out/mail-back methodology was used to collect data from random samples of patients within 5 days of discharge.

Results: For both samples, the ranking of service issues was highly similar, with the same 4 areas emerging as the foremost priorities: patient involvement in decision making, staff response to concerns voiced during the hospital stay, staff sensitivity to the inconvenience of heart failure and hospitalization, and emotional/spiritual support. Improvement in these 4 service areas should be associated with the greatest increases in patient satisfaction and quality of care for heart failure patients.

Conclusions: Adequately addressing these patient needs should increase patient satisfaction and quality of care for heart failure patients.