Readmissions shortly after heart failure (HF) are common, expensive, and usually considered preventable. However, despite the use of several interventions, rates of readmission after HF remain stable. An effective risk score might permit the targeting of resource-intensive interventions (such as disease-management programs) specifically on high-risk patients. We sought to determine the combination of clinical and nonclinical factors that would have the best discriminatory power in predicting 30-day readmission or death in HF.