Black Patients with Heart Failure Are Less Likely to See a Cardiologist in the ICU

Black patients have a higher lifetime risk for heart failure (HF) and the highest HF mortality. Studies have shown that in-hospital survival is higher when patients with HF receive primary care from a cardiologist. To see how regularly this occurs in black patients, researchers used a national observational database to analyze care of 104,835 patients admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU) for HF at 497 U.S. hospitals from 2010 to 2014.

Race and primary ICU care by a cardiologist were determined from billing records. There were 104,835 patients with HF hospitalization (blacks, 19.7%), and most had health insurance. White patients were older than black patients (mean, 11 years) and were more likely to have atrial arrhythmias, chronic obstru…