Specialized Heart Failure Outpatient Clinics: What Staff Are Required, What Is Their Workload, and Can These Data Facilitate the Planning of New Heart Failure Clinics?

Abstract

Outpatient Heart Failure (HF) clinics are recommended in national guidelines to implement multidisciplinary care and ensure consistent follow-up. Studies have demonstrated their effectiveness to provide personalized education, optimize medications and improve clinical outcomes. However, resources to provide these services can vary considerably resulting in different clinic models based on feasibility and fiscal realities. We analyzed the number of physicians, nurses and allied health care professionals in clinics of the Canadian Heart Failure Network (CHFN) to determine whether the staff to patient ratio was similar among the clinics.