Heart failure: ‘Only 3% of patients on a GP care plan get timely review’
A primary care study shows, despite Medicare funding, there are gaps in optimum management
GPs are under-utilising Medicare items to support heart failure care, with only a fraction of patients who receive a management plan being followed up with timely reviews, Australia real-world data show.
Analysis of nearly two million patient records has found only 60% of adults with a heart failure diagnosis have a GP management plan, one-third received a review and just 3% had a review annually or more frequently.
This was despite frequent GP attendance, which averaged 14.4 visits a year.
“If we got GPs in the habit of doing a care plan review, a lot more people would get to where they are supposed to be in terms of treatment,” said lead author and GP academic Associate Professor Ralph Audehm, from the University of Melbourne.
