[The organisation of outpatient medical and nursing clinics for the follow-up of patients after hospitalization for a myocardial infarction or heart failure]

Abstract

. The organisation of outpatient medical and nursing clinics for the follow-up of patients after hospitalization for a myocardial infarction or heart failure.

Introduction: Guidelines suggest careful monitoring of patients after acute heart failure (AHF) or acute myocardial infarction (AMI).

Objective: To describe the implementation of the 'accompanied discharge' (DIMACC) pathway for patients admitted for AHF or AMI in the Cardiology Department of the Pio XI hospital in Desio, and to evaluate its feasibility.

Methods: The DIMACC pathway was built following the recommendations of international guidelines and with the involvement of all the actors.

Results: At discharge, the health objectives to be achieved are defined, and outpatient visits during the first year after hospitalization in the District outpatient clinics with the cardiology doctor and family nurses are booked. The patient stays in the outpatient clinic about 1.5 hours to complete at first, in half an hour, questionnaires on measures, symptoms, adherence, quality of life; then, to receive the nursing visit lasting half an hour for the assessment of the questionnaires, measurement of clinical parameters and counseling; and finally, to be visited by the cardiologist. During the pilot phase (6 months of recruitment and 1 year of follow-up) 168 patients (129 AMI and 39 AHF) followed the pathway: 4 (2.4%) patients died during the follow-up, 14 (8.3%) abandoned the pathway and 150 (89.3%) completed it.

Conclusions: The implementation of the DIMACC pathway required an investment of time (about a year) and resources but the follow-up is feasible. The next phase will be the evaluation of the patient outcomes.