{"doi":"10.2196/29101","title":"A Virtual Cardiovascular Care Program for Prevention of Heart Failure Readmissions in a Skilled Nursing Facility Population: Retrospective Analysis","abstract":"BACKGROUND: Patients with heart failure (HF) in skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) have 30-day hospital readmission rates as high as 43%. A virtual cardiovascular care program, consisting of patient selection, initial televisit, postconsultation care planning, and follow-up televisits, was developed and delivered by Heartbeat Health, Inc., a cardiovascular digital health company, to 11 SNFs (3510 beds) in New York. The impact of this program on the expected SNF 30-day HF readmission rate is unknown, particularly in the COVID-19 era. OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to assess whether a virtual cardiovascular care program could reduce the 30-day hospital readmission rate for patients with HF discharged to SNF relative to the expected rate for this population. METHODS: We performed a retrospective case review of SNF patients who received a virtual cardiology consultation between August 2020 and February 2021. Virtual cardiologists conducted 1 or more telemedicine visit via smartphone, tablet, or laptop for cardiac patients identified by a SNF care team. Postconsult care plans were communicated to SNF clinical staff. Patients included in this analysis had a preceding index admission for HF. RESULTS: We observed lower hospital readmission among patients who received 1 or more virtual consultations compared with the expected readmission rate for both cardiac (3% vs 10%, respectively) and all-cause etiologies (18% vs 27%, respectively) in a population of 3510 patients admitted to SNF. A total of 185/3510 patients (5.27%) received virtual cardiovascular care via the Heartbeat Health program, and 40 patients met study inclusion criteria and were analyzed, with 26 (65%) requiring 1 televisit and 14 (35%) requiring more than 1. Cost savings associated with this reduction in readmissions are estimated to be as high as US $860 per patient. CONCLUSIONS: The investigation provides initial evidence for the potential effectiveness and efficiency of virtual and digitally enabled virtual cardiovascular care on 30-day hospital readmissions. Further research is warranted to optimize the use of novel virtual care programs to transform delivery of cardiovascular care to high-risk populations.","journal":"JMIR Cardio","year":2021,"id":198404,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":10,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9561,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2021-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":773541,"name":"Jana M. Goldberg","orcid":"0000-0002-3857-4769","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":747340,"name":"Rebecca Molinsky","orcid":"0000-0001-9564-0147","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":773542,"name":"Mark Hanson","orcid":"0000-0002-8403-6275","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":634070,"name":"Adam Castaño","orcid":"0000-0003-4482-5840","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":773543,"name":"Syed-Samar Raza","orcid":"0000-0002-6774-2952","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":773544,"name":"Nodar Janas","orcid":"0000-0001-5800-3501","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":773545,"name":"Peter Celano","orcid":"0000-0001-6126-9191","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":773546,"name":"Karen Kapoor","orcid":"0000-0003-3543-3351","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":774262,"name":"Jina Telaraja","orcid":null,"position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":774263,"name":"Maria L. Torres","orcid":null,"position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":773547,"name":"Nayan Jain","orcid":"0000-0002-3831-2136","position":11,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":350605,"name":"Jeffrey D. Wessler","orcid":"0000-0003-1370-9097","position":12,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":773540,"name":"Daniel M Friedman","orcid":"0000-0002-0847-3000","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":19,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:50:31.857233Z","pmid":"34061037","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}