A Seattle-based UW Medicine heart failure program is keeping patients out of the hospital and providing indefinite care for vulnerable heart failure patients.
Harborview Medical Center's Community Heart Failure Program started in 2020 with 16 patients, half a day of care, and two clinicians: Jaimie Pechan, ARNP, DNP, a heart-failure nurse practitioner, and Kate Smith, RN, a heart failure registered nurse.
Dr. Pechan and Ms. Smith travel to wherever patients are most comfortable receiving care, including shelters, homes, cars and bus stops. These patients often face challenges with drug addiction, mental illness and homelessness.
"You're trying to stay well, but you don't have transportation, or you're in withdrawal, or your mental illness is totally untreated," Dr. Pechan told Becker's. "The idea that you'll get on a bus and show up promptly at 11:30 on a Tuesday is not realistic for many people. A better way is to bring heart-failure care to the people. That’s what we’re doing."
The pilot program was able to reduce all-cause hospital readmissions by 36.8%, decrease length of stay by 43% and decrease emergency department admissions by 26%. The program also increased outpatient care among this patient group by 73%.
Many hospitals have similar short-term outreach programs to care for patients after they leave the hospitals, but this program follows patients indefinitely. Since October, the program has grown to treat nearly 70 patients across four days a week.
The program is low-cost, requiring only the salaries of the nurses and the cost of some supplies to run it.