ABSTRACT
Background: Hospital capacity concerns exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic have accelerated growth of hospital at home (HaH) programs. However, for HaH admissions related to heart failure, information on patient characteristics and clinical outcomes remain sparse. We aimed to better characterize heart failure admissions in a HaH model and assess characteristics of patients who later needed escalation of care to a traditional hospitalization. Method(s): This retrospective, descriptive study examined HaH admissions for heart failure at an academic medical center between 2017 and 2022. We compared baseline characteristics and outcomes using the Chi-squared test for categorical variables and t-test for continuous variables for patients who required escalation of care to those who did not. Using the same methods, we also compared patients based on their location prior to admission (e.g. emergency department (ED), home). Result(s): Heart failure was the primary diagnosis for 32% of HaH admissions. The majority of the heart failure cohort (N=199, average age 80.6 years), 73.9%, had heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). Escalation of care to traditional hospitalization was required for 22.6% of patients. 9.0% of patients died within 90 days, and 20.1% and 36.2% of patients were readmitted for any reason within 30 and 90 days respectively. Patients whose care was escalated were more likely to have a history of chronic kidney disease (84.1% vs 66.9%, p=0.043), higher admission BUN (41.5 vs 31.1, p=0.004) and creatinine (1.74 vs 1.41, p=0.011), and a history of PCI (20.5% vs 5.3%, p=0.005). Patients referred directly from home compared to the ED had similar baseline characteristics and rates of 90 day inpatient readmission and mortality. Conclusion(s): Patients admitted to HaH for heart failure represent a high risk cohort who are commonly older with multiple comorbidities and more likely to have HFpEF. Among this cohort, patients with kidney dysfunction and/or history of percutaneous coronary intervention are more likely to require escalation of care. These results suggest that heart failure patients admitted to HaH who will later need traditional hospitalization could be identified prospectively using these characteristics.