Health service use by patients with heart failure living in a community setting: a cross-sectional analysis in North West London

Abstract

Background: The complex nature of heart failure (HF) management, often involving multidimensional care, is widely recognised, but overall health service utilisation by HF patients has not previously been described.Aim: To describe overall health service use by community-dwelling adults with HF.Design and Setting: Cross-sectional analysis of prevalent HF cases between 2015 and 2018 using an administrative dataset covering primary care, secondary care, and ‘other’ (community, mental health, and social care) services in North West London (NWL).Methods: Healthcare use of each service was described overall and by individual components of secondary care (e.g. outpatient appointments) and ‘other’ services (e.g. nursing contacts). Usage patterns were identified using k-means cluster analysis using all distinct contacts for the whole study period and visualised by a heatmap. Results: There were 39 301 patients with a prevalent diagnosis of HF between 1 January 2015 and 31 December 2018. 90% used health services during the study period, most commonly outpatient services, GP consultations, unplanned A&E visits and community services. Use of cardiology-specific services ranged from around 3% (cardiology-related community care) to around 20% (outpatient cardiology visits). GP consultations decreased by 11% over our study period. Five clusters of patients were identified, each with significantly different care usage patterns and patient characteristics.Conclusions: HF patients make heavy but heterogeneous use of services. Relatively low and falling use of GP consultations, and apparently low uptake of community rehabilitation services by patients with HF, is concerning and suggests challenges in primary care access and integration of care.