February is a month for celebrating matters of the heart.
Most famously, Valentine’s Day is an occasion for exchanging cards, gifts, and declarations of affection. But February is also American Heart Month, an opportunity to promote heart health awareness.
To honor the women we love, ECG promotes the synergy of women’s health and cardiac health service lines as a way to enhance quality outcomes in these two important areas. A quick online search reveals disconcerting statistics aboutwomen and heart disease. From the American Heart Association’s Go Red for Women website, here are just four “Facts about Women and Heart Disease.”
The prevalence of women’s heart disease is exacerbated by race-based factors and social determinants of health (SDOH) that contribute significantly toward women’s risk during pregnancy and throughout their lifetimes.
There is more sobering news in the conclusion from the AHA Journal article “Social Determinants of Suboptimal Cardiovascular Health Among Pregnant Women in the United States.”
Patient/Provider Relationships
Within health systems, an opportunity to improve women’s heart care begins in the outpatient arena. Many women develop strong, trusted relationships with their OB/GYN providers during their pregnancies. ECG’s data shows that more than 30% opt to stay with those providers postdelivery for their ongoing wellness care. OB/GYN providers already manage a wide variety of clinical conditions related to pregnancy and gynecology. Click here to continue>>
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