Population Health Management for Congestive Heart Failure

Population Health Management for Congestive Heart Failure
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Population Health Management for Congestive Heart Failure
The prevalence of congestive heart failure (CHF) is rising significantly due to a growth in the aging population. Moreover, it is associated with high mortality and high healthcare costs due to high hospital readmission rates (Takeda et al., 2019). Thus, it is important to identify services and interventions that can help address the healthcare needs of an older population with CHF. Furthermore, such interventions and services should be cost-effective. This paper explores services and interventions that a population health nurse working with this particular population can implement to help address health promotion, risk management, care coordination, and disease management.
Health Promotion Services and Interventions
Health promotion allows people to be in more control of their health. Patients with congestive heart failure need to feel in control of their health even when battling chronic illnesses. One of the most fundamental aspects of health promotion is health literacy. According to Rice et al. (2018), health literacy has been linked to self-care behaviors among patients. Patients with adequate information can make healthier choices. One of the interventions that have been considered effective in addressing health promotion among elderly patients with congestive heart failure is nurse-led patient education. According to Rice et al. (2018), nurse-led patient education interventions have proven effective among patients with CHF because they reduce costs and hospital readmissions. In addition, nurse-led education interventions increase patient knowledge about CHF and provide patients with self-management techniques. In the absence of such knowledge, patients fail to adhere to their medication or adopt self-care behaviors (Rice et al., 2018). Nurse-led patient education interventions can be delivered either during home visits or over the telephone. As Jiang et al. (2021) reveal, a home-based nurse-led education intervention for older patients with heart failure increased their self-care over time. It also improved their self-efficacy in terms of improved symptoms control and functioning. Jiang et al. (2021) indicate that nurse-led education also reduced the number of unplanned hospital visits due to a cardiac event. Their results also support those of Rice et al. (2018) because they revealed that the intervention reduced the rate of hospital admissions.
Risk Management
Addressing risk factors for CHF can go a long way in preventing or slowing the progression of CHF in elderly people. According to Horwich and Fonarow (2017), lifestyle and medical factors contribute to the development of CHF, and the management of these risk factors is essential as part of population health management. Specifically, lifestyle factors include physical inactivity, overweight/obesity, poor diet, and smoking. Medical factors include high cholesterol levels, untreated high blood pressure, and uncontrolled diabetes. LaMonte (2018) indicates that prolonged exposure to diabetes, hypertension, and coronary atherosclerosis increases CHF risk. There are many cost-effective interventions that healthcare providers can utilize in risk management for this population. One intervention that has been effective in this area is a physical activity intervention that is specifically tailored for clients older than 65 years. According to Pandey et al. (2017), physical activity reduces the risk of developing heart failure among older adults. The intervention can involve each client walking for 150 minutes per week. If they have limited mobility, they can engage in resistance training, which has been shown to improve physical capacity and reduce the risk of heart failure (Liew & Teo, 2018). Further, physical activity lowers the risks of CHF in patients with diabetes and other comorbidities. According to LaMonte (2018), physical activity improves cardiorespiratory fitness, reducing the risk of CHF in patients with or without diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Physical activity can also help patients maintain a healthy weight, which is an essential part of risk management for CHF. The intervention should be administered in a controlled setting that addresses safety concerns regarding physical activity among the elderly.
Care Coordination
Care coordination is necessary to ensure that patients are receiving effective care at affordable costs. Older patients with CHF have complex healthcare needs, and their healthcare team needs to share relevant information to help the patient receive the best care. As Geiger et al. (2021) reveal, poor care coordination i...