Helpful Team Conference for Elder Patients with Congestive Heart Failure

Background: Elder patients with congestive heart failure (CHF) have many comorbidities, which have more important prognostic role than CHF self. Also, coexisting nursing-care problems need long time to resolve, which lead to longer hospitalization. Team conference seems helpful to assess various aspect of patients' pathological condition, which may lead to provide better healthcare. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify prognostic factors in patients who need both treatment for CHF and nursing-care. Methods: A retrospective observational study was conducted. During from 2012.4.1 to 2017.3.31, in all patients with CHF who admitted to our hospital, 206 patients were eligible for team conference based on nursing assessment. Results: 124 patients were discharged to home, 61 patients were led to long-term care facilities or changed to recuparation hospitals, and 21 patients were died in hospital. The level of care needed was tended to be higher (2.0 ± 1.8 vs. 1.2 ± 1.4, P = .066) and the frequency of intolerance to ambulation exercise was significantly higher (52.4% vs. 12.4%, P < .001) in hospital death group than in survival group. Time interval from hospitalization to team conference was significantly related to total length of hospitalization. Conclusions: In elder patients with CHF who need care, tolerance to ambulation exercise was important for alive discharge. Early-staged team conference might be helpful for early hospital discharge.