Welcome to Lesson 1 of ACC's Heart Failure Accreditation Overview Course. This learning activity was developed by myself. I am Liza St. Clair and I will also be narrating this presentation. Our objectives for this lesson are to define the heart failure population and identify the current and prevalent challenges both patients and hospitals are struggling with to manage this disease. One of the very overwhelming realities of heart failure is that it is growing exponentially. By 2030, it is projected that over 8 million will have been diagnosed with heart failure within the United States. With a projected 32 million people diagnosed with heart failure in 2028, the U.S. will lead and contribute to this global and rampant epidemic by more than 25%. Despite the rise in this growing population, the healthcare delivery system has not improved to meet these growing demands and the need to care for these patients. Yearly, there are over 700,000 ED visits for a primary diagnosis of a heart failure that occur and it is largely comprised of vulnerable and susceptible geriatric individuals. And over 80% of these ED visits results in being admitted to the hospital with an average length of stay of 4 1⁄2 days with no improvement in the frequency of readmissions or mortality. In spite of the acute treatments provided during the hospitalization, patients were likely to return back to the hospital almost 23% of the time, with about 60% of these readmissions occurring within 0 to 15 days post-discharge. And perhaps the most disturbing statistic is that within 5 years, 50% of our patients won't be with us anymore. Additional contributing factors to this problem included deficiencies in adopting guideline-directed medical therapies, a lack of coordination to ensure multidisciplinary care and resources, and poor identification of patients eligible for advanced therapies within a timely manner. 7.2% of all cardiovascular deaths in the United States are attributed to heart failure with about 12% mortality rate in the first 30 days following a hospitalization. And due to progression of the disease and delayed screenings, there is now a vast increase in demand for some type of advanced heart failure therapy, which not only includes defibrillator or cardiac resynchronization therapy devices, but also mechanical circulatory support such as LVAD and the need of a heart transplant. This concludes Lesson 104. Thank you for your participation.

Liza St. Clair

heart failure

patients

hospitals

healthcare system