How to Prevent Readmissions of Heart Failure - Essay Example

Heart Failure Article Selected “Transitional care interventions to prevent readmissions for persons with heart failure: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis” Problem Statement The study in Feltner, Jones, Cene, Zheng, Sueta, Coker-Schwimmer, Arvanitis, Lohr, Middleton & Jones (2014) emphasizes the clinical problem related to heart failure treatments. The problem emphasized thus has been grounded on the statistics of readmissions by heart failure patients within a few days of discharge, embarking a negative impression for the health care sector efficiency. The causes for such failures leading to high and frequent degrees of readmissions in these hospitals are deemed much crucial in order to identify the loophole in the treatment process and thereafter, enhance the quality of service provided. Felter et al. (2014) also argues that while a major proportion of the recent studies have been concentrated on the examination of heart failure treatment techniques and its efficacies, only limited significance has been delivered on investigating the increasing rate of readmissions after such treatments. Precisely, this was the literature gap identified in this study. To establish the research problem, Felter et al. (2014) grounded their arguments on the recent statistical data, which proved the claim of the authors regarding readmissions of heart failure patients. Perhaps, with the supposition to maintain generalisability and include both favoring and opposing data, Felter et al. (2014) also delivered due significance in including information about those strategies, which are adopted by hospitals to prevent readmissions of the patient population, through the implementation of “transitional care intervention” programs. From an argumentative perception thus, Felter et al. (2014: 774) stated, “…An analysis of Medicare claims data from 2007 to 2009 found that 35% of readmissions within 30 days were for HF [heart failure]”. Purpose and Research Questions Although the focus of the study was laid on the evaluation of the health care efficiency in delivering quality treatment to heart failure patients, Felter et al. (2014) also attempted to recommend a few noteworthy solutions to the situation based on the “transitional care intervention” program that is often practiced to serve the population. Precisely, Felter et al. (2014) stated that their purpose was to “assess the efficacy, comparative effectiveness, and harms of transitional care interventions to reduce readmission and mortality rates for adults hospitalized with HF”. Hence, it is seemingly well established that the purpose of the study was board to cover a major area of the research issue. However, the authors provide a vague narrative of the aims and objectives as well as questions that they intended to infer. Nevertheless, deducing from the discussions conducted by Felter et al. (2014), the question that might have guided the research can be stated as – What are the loopholes in the transactional care intervention programs provided to the heart failure patients that direct to their readmissions and how can those be managed? When aligning this research question with the purpose stated by Felter et al. (2014), these can be observed as linked strongly, which gets increasingly evident as the study progresses towards its conclusion. While these features point to the coherence and comprehensibility of the entire study in Felter et al. (2014), its application of a pure qualitative approach can be criticized as somewhat inappropriate or rather inadequate. Felter et al. (2014) made extensive research of scholarly articles along with field study those were sufficient to establish the research issue, but the absence of statistical explanations and justifications inhibits the adequacy of the conclusions made, especially in context that the problem was identified to be a very recent one. Literature Review As already mentioned, the study by Felter et al. (2014) was based on a qualitative approach, wherein critical review of the existing literature had immense significance. The authors can be observed to have delivered high significance to elaborative statistical data and a descriptive analysis of the same in order to draw inferences in relation to the identified research issue. Nevertheless, the study, throughout, was assessed with the incorporation of comparative and contrasting reviews of existing literatures that added to the value of the overall approach. Concerning the validity and appropriateness of the literatures reviewed in Felter et al. (2014), it can be apparently noted that majority of these references were studied within the past ten years representing the most recent scenario in heart failure treatments provided by hospitals. In addition, majority of the literatures studied in Felter et al. (2014) were also based on quantitative data analysis method but indicated results prior to five years of the study, which can be denoted as a limitation to the approach. However, high degree of relevancy of the data gathered was observed when considering these references. Another weakness of the study conducted in Felter et al. (2014) was identified to the negligible significance delivered by the authors in addressing the limitations of the referred literatures in compare and contrast to the subject of the issue in concern. Nonetheless, the arguments made by the author seemed logical guided by these references, which in turn subsides the limitations of the sources selected. Conceptual / Theoretical Framework Critically reviewing the study in Felter et al. (2014), it becomes observable that throughout its arguments a strong linkage was persistent that raised the degree of coherence between the study objectives and the conclusions derived. A key to such high degree of coherence can be further identified as the focus of the authors on progressing with emphasis to one specific perspective rather than taking a multi-dimensional approach. Since the initiation of the study, Felter et al. (2014) were thus focused on the effectiveness and deficiencies of ‘transitional care intervention’ programs indicating their singular perspective on the study. However, the perspective does not suffice the requisites of a grounded theory approach taken by the authors, not only because no particular diagram or framework was developed for the purpose of the study but also because the authors have often diversified their point of view in order to include facts those were relevant to the issue in concern. Nevertheless, this limitation does not seem to have affected the validity and precision of the findings thus obtained, which indicatively guide toward a framework among the audiences of the article. To be precise, the study finding obtained in Felter et al. (2014) indicate that Multidisciplinary Heart Failure (MDS-HF) clinics and Structured Telephone Support (STS) together can increase the efficiency of ‘transitional care intervention’ schemes and must be used at a greater degree within the hospitals when treating heart failure patients. These further guide the development of a framework interlinking MDS-HF and STS with the efficiency of heart failure treatments in hospitals to reduce readmissions. Reference Feltner, C., Jones, C. D., Cene, C. W., Zheng, Z. J., Sueta, C. A., Coker-Schwimmer, E. J. L., Arvanitis, M., Lohr, K. N., Middleton, J. C. and Jones, D. E. (2014). Transitional care interventions to prevent readmissions for persons with heart failure: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Annals of Internal Medicine, 160, 774-784. Read More