Care delivery team composition effect on hospitalization risk in African Americans with congestive heart failure

The care delivery team (CDT) is critical to providing care access and equity to patients who are disproportionately impacted by congestive heart failure (CHF). However, the specific clinical roles that are associated with care outcomes are unknown. The objective of this study was to examine the extent to which specific clinical roles within CDTs were associated with care outcomes in African Americans (AA) with CHF. Deidentified electronic medical record data were collected on 5,962 patients, representing 80,921 care encounters with 3,284 clinicians between January 1, 2014 and December 31, 2021. Binomial logistic regression assessed associations of specific clinical roles and the Mann Whitney-U assessed racial differences in outcomes. AAs accounted for only 26% of the study population but generated 48% of total care encounters, the same percentage of care encounters generated by the largest racial group (i.e., Caucasian Americans; 69% of the study population). AAs had a significantly higher number of hospitalizations and readmissions than Caucasian Americans. However, AAs had a significantly higher number of days at home and significantly lower care charges than Caucasian Americans. Among all CHF patients, patients with a Registered Nurse on their CDT were less likely to have a hospitalization (i.e. 30%) and a high number of readmissions (i.e., 31%) during the 7-year study period. When stratified by heart failure phenotype, the most severe patients who had a Registered Nurse on their CDT were 88% less likely to have a hospitalization and 50% less likely to have a high number of readmissions. Similar decreases in the likelihood of hospitalization and readmission were also found in less severe cases of heart failure. Specific clinical roles are associated with CHF care outcomes. Consideration must be given to developing and testing the efficacy of more specialized, empirical models of CDT composition to reduce the disproportionate impact of CHF.