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Heart Failure P49 Characteristics of inpatients with heart failure selected for cardiologist-directed care at North Shore Hospital D. Ukiwe 1, J. Christiansen 2*, C. Edwards 2 1

Counties Manukau District Health Board, Auckland, NZ Waitemata District Health Board, Auckland, NZ * Corresponding author. 2

Background: Waitemata DHB provides comprehensive cardiology inpatient services, with 35 dedicated beds, and 24/7 ward consultation at two acute hospitals. Patients admitted with congestive heart failure (CHF) are cared for by both Cardiology and General Medicine. Cardiologists select patients for admission to the cardiology beds. We investigated differences in the patients selected by Cardiology and those managed by General Medicine at North Shore Hospital. Methods: Audit of admissions in 2013 identified 46 patients with a primary diagnosis of CHF (DRGs = ‘CHF’, ‘left ventricular failure’ or ‘cardiomyopathy’) admitted under Cardiology. We randomly selected 46 out of 748 CHF patients admitted under General Medicine in 2013 as a comparison group. Results: Cardiology patients were more likely to be male (87% vs 43%), younger (