For people living with chronic heart failure, the challenges and lifestyle accommodations can be major. Evergreen’s Cardiac Enhancement Center offers ongoing support and management, and also helps coordinate care between your primary care physician and your heart specialist. Because there’s more to treating heart failure than simply taking medications, Evergreen provides extensive education for both patients and their support along with weekly visits and phone follow-ups.
The program begins in the hospital with specialized patient education, including videos, written materials and discharge instructions. Nurses begin follow-up phone calls three days after discharge, and call for a month post-discharge. Home services are set up when needed.
Appropriate patients are referred for outpatient management of heart failure by a cardiology nurse practitioner at the Cardiac Enhancement Center. The nurse practitioner meets regularly with heart failure patients, every week or two in the beginning, then less often once patients are successfully managing their condition. If they run into problems, the nurse can call on a team of specialists, including Evergreen’s home health professionals and social workers, along with follow-up support from the Evergreen Healthline’s registered nurses.
The goal is to reduce the rate of rehospitalization that often occurs with heart failure patients. The Evergreen program is working – 26% of chronic heart failure patients used to be readmitted to the hospital within three to six months…but of those participating in Evergreen’s program, only 1-2% return to the hospital.
The program was recognized with a 2005 Award of Excellence in Healthcare Quality from Qualis Health, which recognizes innovations that make measurable improvements in outcomes for patients.
For more information, please call 425.899.2789.