A recent study found disparities in heart failure care between rural and urban hospitals, but no significant difference in 30-day or in-hospital outcomes.
The study, published in JAMA Cardiology, analyzed data from 774,419 patients hospitalized for heart failure across 569 sites in the American Heart Association's Get With The Guidelines-Heart Failure registry. Data was collected between January 2014 and September 2021. Postdischarge outcomes were assessed using 161,996 patients linked to Medicare claims.
Researchers found rural hospitals are less likely to use some guideline-recommended therapies at discharge and less likely to have a stay of four or more days. However, other quality metrics were similar to urban hospitals.
After adjusting for confounders, there was no significant difference in in-hospital or 30-day outcomes between rural and urban hospitals, according to the study.