Standards of Care Delivery in Team-based Risk Stratification of African Americans with Congestive Heart Failure

Prevalence and mortality risk are nearing twice the national average in many Arkansas counties. Arkansas also has the third highest concentration of CHF death rates of all 50 states. Furthermore, care delivery systems (i.e., hospitals, and nurses) are struggling to balance the needs of CHF patients against the variability of unplanned critical care needs in the ongoing, large-scale communicable disease outbreaks. However, the routine, preventive, and urgent care needs of AAs with CHF can not be deprioritized because of health system inelasticity. If so, health disparities in AAs will be further exacerbated. Since the "one-size-fits-all" approach to care delivery (i.e., the same level of resources provided to all patients) is clinically ineffective and wasteful, the efficient allocation of clinical resources (e.g., nurses) fuels the need for more innovative, evidence-based and nurse-led approaches to stratifying risks among AA patients.