Abstract 19829: Get With the Guidelines Heart Failure Risk Score and Post-Discharge Events in Hospitalized Heart Failure Patients: A Community-Based Study

Background: The Get with the Guidelines (GWTG) heart failure (HF) Risk Score was developed in the GWTG inpatient HF registry to predict inpatient mortality but has not been validated in the community setting or for post-discharge outcomes. Methods: The 100 point GWTG score uses 7 admission variables (blood urea nitrogen, systolic blood pressure, age, sodium, heart rate, race, and lung disease) to place patients into 9 categories at incremental risk for inpatient mortality. In this community-based study of all HF hospitalizations (5794 HF admissions in 3628 patients) from 2000-2013, we examined the predictive characteristics of the GWTG score for inpatient and post-discharge mortality and all-cause or HF readmission. Results: In the community, the GWTG score was well calibrated for inpatient mortality in the 98% of admissions that fell in the 4 lowest GWTG risk strata, but not for those in the 5 highest risk strata (Figure). Pre- and post-discharge mortality increased across GWTG risk quintiles (c-statisti...