Heart, Lung and Circulation (2020) -, -–- 1443-9506/20/$36.00 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hlc.2020.03.004 ORIGINAL ARTICLE The Effect of Transitional Care on 30-Day Outcomes in Patients Hospitalised With Acute Heart Failure Andrea Driscoll, RN, NP, PhD a,b,f, *, Diem Dinh, PhD a , David Prior, MBBS, PhD, FRACP c,g , David Kaye, MBBS, PhD, FRACP d,e , David Hare, MBBS, DPM, FRACP f,g , Christopher Neil, MBBS, PhD h,g , Siobhan Lockwood, MBBS, FRACP i , Angela Brennan, RN a , Jeff Lefkovits, MBBS, FRACP a , Harriet Carruthers, BA a , John Amerena, MBBS, FRACP j , Jennifer C. Cooke, MBBS, FRACP k,o , Gautam Vaddadi, MBBS, PhD, FRACP l , Voltaire Nadurata, MD, FRACP m , Christopher M. Reid, PhD n a School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Vic, Australia b School of Nursing and Midwifery, Deakin University, Geelong, Vic, Australia c Department of Cardiology, St Vincents Hospital, Melbourne, Vic, Australia d Heart Failure Research Group, Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute, Melbourne, Vic, Australia e Department of Cardiology, Alfred Health, Melbourne, Vic, Australia f Department of Cardiology, Austin Health, Melbourne, Vic, Australia g School of Medicine, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Vic, Australia h Department of Cardiology, Western Health, Melbourne, Vic, Australia i Department of Cardiology, Monash Health, Melbourne, Vic, Australia j Department of Cardiology, Barwon Health, Geelong, Vic, Australia k Department of Cardiology, Eastern Health, Melbourne, Vic, Australia l Department of Cardiology, Northern Health, Melbourne, Vic, Australia m Department of Cardiology, Bendigo Health, Bendigo,Vic, Australia n School of Public Health, Curtin University, Perth, WA, Australia o School of Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Vic, Australia Received 2 August 2019; received in revised form 1 January 2020; accepted 1 March 2020; online published-ahead-of-print xxx Background Patients admitted to hospital with acute heart failure (AHF) are at increased risk of readmission and mortality post-discharge. The aim of the study was to examine health service utilisation within 30 days post-discharge from an AHF hospitalisation. Methods This was a prospective, observational, non-randomised study of consecutive patients hospitalised with acute HF to one of 16 Victorian hospitals over a 30-day period each year and followed up for 30 days post- discharge. The project was conducted annually over three consecutive years from 2015 to 2017. Results Of the 1,197 patients, 56.3% were male with an average age of 77613.23 years. Over half of the patients (711, 62.5%) were referred to an outpatient clinic and a third (391, 34.4%) to a HF disease management program. In- hospital mortality was 5.1% with 30 day-mortality of 9% and readmission rate of 24.4%. Patients who experi- enced a subsequent readmission less than 10 days post-discharge and between 11 and 20 days post-discharge had a five- to six-fold increase in risk of mortality (adjusted OR 5.02, 95% CI 2.11–11.97; OR 6.45, 95% CI 2.69–15.42; respectively) compared to patients who were not readmitted to hospital. An outpatient appointment within 30 days post-discharge significantly reduced the risk of 30-day mortality by 81% (95% CI 0.09–0.43). *Corresponding author at: School of Nursing and Midwifery, Monash University and Deakin University and Austin Health, Burwood Hwy, Burwood 3125, Vic, Australia. Tel.: 03 92517212; Email: andrea.driscoll@deakin.edu.au Ó 2020 Australian and New Zealand Society of Cardiac and Thoracic Surgeons (ANZSCTS) and the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand (CSANZ). Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. HLC3108_proof ■ 28 April 2020 ■ 1/9 Please cite this article in press as: Driscoll A, et al. The Effect of Transitional Care on 30-Day Outcomes in Patients Hospitalised With Acute Heart Failure. Heart, Lung and Circulation (2020), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hlc.2020.03.004