Do community-based disease management programs for patients recovering from myocardial infarction reduce hospital readmissions compared with usual care?

Randomized controlled trial.

Disease management programme-based care (DMP) significantly reduced hospital re-admission days compared with usual care in patients recovering from myocardial infarction (number of readmission days for angina, congestive heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease per follow-up days: 11430,823 with DMP vs. 20034,021 with usual care; incidence density ratio^{An incidence density ratio of >1.0 indicates that the DMP had a protective effect compared with usual care.} (IDR): 1.59, 95% CI 1.27 to 2.00; P<0.001; number of all-cause hospital readmission days: 48330,823 with DMP vs. 81434,021 with usual care; IDR: 1.53, 95% CI 1.37 to 1.71; P<0.001). There was no significant difference in mortality after discharge between groups (8 with DMP vs. 11 with usual care; P>0.05).

A community-based disease management program successfully reduced hospitalisation days for patients recovering from myocardial infarction compared with usual care.