Reducing heart failure re-admissions by enhancing sleep apnea treatment adherence

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Hospital re-admission can be devastating for patients and carries significant financial burdens for health care systems. In 2013, the recently implemented Medicare Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program imposed 227 million in penalties on 2,225 hospitals. Medicare has focused on heart failure diagnoses because it is one of the most common causes of admission and has the highest re-admission rate of any medical diagnosis. A growing body of research suggests that sleep apnea is a major predictor of heart failure re-admission; it is present in 50-80 percent of heart failure patients. Furthermore, preliminary research gathered by the University of Pennsylvania Sleep Center suggests that positive airway pressure (PAP) treatment of sleep apnea is associated with significantly reduced re-admission rates. However, adherence to sleep apnea treatment with PAP is poor, with only 30-40 percent of patients having adequate hours of use. This finding has led the study investigator