Background: The number of people with heart failure is increasing. These patients have a high readmission rate and need ongoing health care and follow-up after hospital discharge. However, face-to-face nursing care is expensive; therefore, remote care options are required.
Objective: To determine whether there are differences in the effects (rehospitalization rate and drug adherence) between face-to-face transitional care and remote technology, such as information and communication technologies, for transitional care in patients with heart failure within 30 days post-discharge.
Design: A scoping review.
Setting: Patients with heart failure who received an intervention using information and communication technologies within 30 days of discharge after being hospitalized for heart failure, based on published studies.
Methods: Eight English, Japanese, and Chinese databases were searched for research papers published between January 2000 and November 2021 that examined outcomes such as readmission rates in patients with heart failure who received transitional care using remote technologies. This study followed the screening criteria outlined in the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses 2020 guidelines.
Results: Seventeen studies were included in this review. Among them, 14 studies reported lower readmission rates in the transitional care group using information and communication technologies compared to the control group, and the difference was statistically significant in nine studies. In addition, one paper showed that the transitional care group experienced more significant improvements in patient satisfaction and quality of life.
Conclusions: Transitional care using information and communication technologies can provide necessary guidance according to the patient's schedule, regardless of the patient's location and time. Patients can share their self-monitored information with medical practitioners and receive timely feedback and guidance. With continuous follow-up support from medical practitioners, patients can adjust their care plans to ensure optimal execution, and the patient's doubts and anxieties can be quickly resolved, increasing the patient's self-confidence. As a result, patients' self-care ability was improved, and controlling symptoms and preventing deterioration became easier. We inferred that the transitional care group achieved a higher self-care ability compared with the control group. Transitional care using remote technologies, such as information and communication technologies following discharge for heart failure patients, can help to reduce readmission rates within 30 days of discharge compared to face-to-face care. In addition, the study demonstrated that remote technologies may improve quality of life and patient satisfaction.
Keywords: Heart failure; Patient readmission; Quality of life; Telemedicine; Transitional care.
© 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.