Heart failure & cardiomyopathiesResearch article
Out-of-hours primary care management for patients with heart failure
- descriptive analyses
Authors' conclusion
At the OHS-PC, one in every 20 contacts for SOB is a HF patient who has a high 6-month mortality risk. Patients were directly referred to the hospital or received initiation or up-titration of loop diuretics.
Study context
- Population
- Patients with heart failure (HF) who contacted Dutch OHS-PC for shortness of breath (SOB) between September 2020 and August 2021, in whom HF was considered to be the cause for consultationpatients with HF, of 1833 calls for SOB
- Participants
- 102 patients
- Comparison
- patients referred to the Emergency Department (ED) to those who remained in primary care
- referred to the Emergency Department (ED)n = 51
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
Patients with HF among calls for SOB
Calls for SOB concerning patients with HF
102 (5.1%)
Mean age
79.6 ± 11.1 years
Women
53%
Further findings
Care trajectory at OHS-PC
- Directly referred to the ED
- Ten (9.8%)
- First assessed by a general practitioner (GP)
- 92 (90.2%)
- Of those assessed by a GP: home visit
- 62 (60.8%)
- Of those assessed by a GP: seen at the OHS-PC clinic
- 15 (14.7%)
- Of those assessed by a GP: telephone advice only
- 15 (14.7%)
- Of the 92 patients assessed by a GP: subsequently referred to the ED
- 41 (44.6%)
- Of the 92 patients assessed by a GP: kept at home and received loop diuretics
- 39 (42.4%)
Hospital admission among the 51 patients referred to the ED
- Of the 51 patients referred to the ED: admitted
- 42 patients (82.4%, P-value < .001)
All-cause mortality · 6 months
- Six-month all-cause mortality of the 102 patients
- 32.3%
Original publication
Out-of-hours primary care management for patients with heart failure. ESC Heart Fail. Published 30 April 2026. doi:10.1093/eschf/xvag124
Summarised from the published abstract; every number is checked against it