Heart failure patients treated at hospitals with lower 30-day mortality rates also enjoy a survival benefit one, three and even five years later, suggesting a short-term risk-standardized mortality rate (RSMR) may deserve additional weight in CMS’s financial incentive programs.

Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center in Houston reopened its heart transplant program June 15 after a two-week suspension in which the hospital conducted an internal review of two recent patient deaths.

Scientists are researching how to take stem cells from the patient’s blood to repair damage to the heart. A new therapy could reduce the need for operations, the U.K.’s Express newspaper reports, with researchers hoping the therapy could save lives while being cost effective. 

Patients who progressed to having longer episodes of subclinical atrial fibrillation (SCAF) were more than four times as likely to be hospitalized for heart failure in a one-year span, according to a study published June 4 in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Measurements of malnutrition offer incremental prognostic value for patients with heart failure, but more work is needed to tease out which components of the condition are most crucial to calculate and treat, researchers reported in JACC: Heart Failure.

The average hospital stay for pediatric patients requiring a ventricular assist device (VAD) spans nearly three months and costs $750,000, according to research in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

Time spent alive and out of healthcare institutions can be calculated from claims data and represents an important, easy-to-grasp outcome for heart failure patients, researchers said.

The electrical connection between the ventricular assist device (VAD)'s power source and its controller may be interrupted due to oxidation on the connecting surfaces, according to the agency’s recall notice.