June 18, 2010 09:43pm EST 

Heart failure patients are discharged faster today than ever before, a study finds.

The study, conducted on American hospitals by a team of researchers from Yale University and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that while heart failure patients are being discharged faster, in-home deaths and readmissions are on the rise.

Studying over 7 million cases of heart failure, each of which led to hospitalization, the team found that the average length of stay for heart failure patients decreased by more than 2 days between the years of 1993 and 2006. The in-hospital death rate had decreased significantly as well, creating an illusion that heart failure patients are experiencing better prognoses.

However, while in-hospital deaths for heart failure dropped, the overall death rate has actually increased by approximately 2 percent, showing that more deaths are occurring outside of the hospital. Additionally, the readmission rate of heart failure patients increased by 3 percent, from 17.1 to 20.1 percent.

The study suggests that there may be a relationships between a short hospital stay and increases in readmission and in-home deaths. However, there is no definitive proof that there is any relationship at all. One thing is for sure: hospitals should be encouraged to take care of patients until they are genuinely healthy and ready to leave.

Without incentive to do so, however, readmission and short hospital stays remain a growing problem