Knowledge Assessment of Patient Heart Failure in Association with Hospital Length of Stay and 30-Day Readmission

Statement of Problem: The research reviewed for the grant proposal project, shows inconclusive associations between patient's heart failure knowledge and health care utilization. The purpose of this grant proposal is to fund a pilot study that will help to understand the association between patient heart failure knowledge, the independent variable, and health care utilization as measured by the dependent variables hospital length of stay (LOS) and 30-day readmission. Understanding this association, be it positive or negative will help to facilitate subsequent research directed at theory based individualized interventions. These interventions will be directed at self-care maintenance, self-care management, and self-care confidence, which are hypnotized with patient engagement to improve health outcomes and decrease health care utilization for heart failure patients. Sources of Data: For this grant proposal project, the Self-Care Heart Failure Index will be the tool to assess patient heart failure knowledge. The patient's knowledge will be scored in the areas of self-care maintenance, self-care management, and self-care confidence. A score greater than 70 is considered significant in patient heart failure knowledge. Using Person's r correlation, the positive or negative associations between patient scores on the SCHFI, LOS, and 30-day readmission will be determined. Multi-variable linear regression will be used to determine the impact of confounding variables on length of stay and 30-day readmission.