Therapy of heart failure in African Americans: lessons from an urban public hospital

African-American patients with heart failure treated at urban public hospitals are at high risk for adverse outcomes likely due to complex socioeconomic factors. While establishing a heart failure disease management program at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas, TX, the authors completed two studies that address the high rates of heart failure hospitalizations seen in this population. The first study found high rates of adverse outcomes following emergency department discharge for heart failure. The second identified important deficiencies in dietary sodium knowledge. Both 90-day outcomes (return emergency department visit or heart failure hospitalization) following an index emergency department discharge and dietary sodium knowledge represent new potential measures of quality of care of heart failure. Studies of this high-risk population of heart failure patients may offer insights that lead to improved outcomes both in the urban setting and elsewhere.