Puyallup, Wash.-based MultiCare's Pulse Heart Institute partnered with DispatchHealth to reduce congestive heart failure patient readmission to 6.8 percent, according to a recent white paper.
Congestive heart failure hospital readmissions rates are 25 percent nationally and are most common among the elderly and Medicare patients, according to a Dec. 28 article on Pulse Heart Institute's website.
Pulse Heart Institute created a heart failure-specific collaboration with DispatchHealth. Patients would contact the institute, and if the patient needed attention quicker than clinic availability, the institute contacted DispatchHealth. DispatchHealth then sent a clinician to the patient's home to treat their needs.
The institute's 30-day hospital readmission rate dropped more than 50 percent, from 15.87 percent to 6.82 percent, researchers wrote.