6 The Impact of the Introduction of an Integrated Heart Failure Service at Torbay District General Hospital: Abstract 6 Table 1

Abstract

patients mean LOS in the absence of psychiatric comorbidities was 11.2 days. Presence of a psychiatric comorbidity increased LOS by 3.3 days. Logistic regression accounting for age, gender and ethnicity showed that LOS was significantly longer in patients suffering from depression (3.4 days), bipolar disorder (8.8 days), dementia (4.2 days), dementia unspecified (4.6 days) and vascular dementia (3.0 days). Conversely, LOS was significantly reduced by 3.7 days in patients with comorbid tobacco abuse. Conclusion Our results demonstrate that psychiatric comorbidities have a significant and clinically important impact on LOS in HF patients in the UK. Clinicians should be actively aware of psychiatric conditions amongst HF patients and manage them to reduce LOS and ultimately the risk for patients and financial burden for the NHS.