Modern approaches to the organization of care for patients with heart failure

Chronic heart failure (CHF) is a wide-spread disease (from 7 to 10% in the Russian Federation) and tends to grow. Frequent, repeated hospitalizations of CHF patients are due to insufficient compliance of patients with the treatment and the absence of continuity in management of patients between the hospital and out-patient clinic. Developing a structure of specialized care could provide improvement of treatment quality, a decrease in the number of hospitalizations, and better prognosis. International experience shows that creation of specialized clinics for heart failure improves quality of medical care in CHF and decreases the frequency of re-hospitalizations and mortality. In the Russian Federation, such clinics were created in Nizhniy Novgorod, Ufa, Saint Petersburg, and several other cities. The article presents an expert consensus on the structure, functions, and equipment of departments and offices for patients with heart failure.