Jamestown clinic offering program

By stepping on a special scale every day, heart patients will be able to better manage their health at home and reduce visits to the hospital.

Patients with heart failure can become part of a new program at the Essentia Health Heart and Vascular Center in Fargo that uses a telemonitoring scale to transmit information to nurses who can monitor if patients’ medications need to be adjusted or if their health is worsening. This specialized program will now be offered at our Jamestown clinic on a monthly basis.

The technology is one component of the Heart Failure Program that began in December 2011. It’s modeled after an Essentia Health program in Duluth, Minn.

“It’s a wonderful program,” said Sara Hanson, director of cardiovascular services at Essentia Health - Fargo. “It offers the best care for the patient and helps them to keep their heart failure under better control. The program helps patients stay healthier at home.”

The Heart Failure Program focuses on round-the-clock management of the disease so patients can lead normal lives. That includes regular check-ups, phone calls from nurses, rigorous patient education, and for the sickest patients, use of the in-home telescale. Patients step on the scale each day to record their weight and answer questions about symptoms of heart failure. The information is transmitted immediately to nurses at the Heart & Vascular Center.

While the national hospital readmission rates for heart failure patients at six months are 40 to 50 percent, Essentia’s telescale patients have readmission rates around 1 to 2 percent. Readmission rates for all patients in the program have hovered around 3 to 7 percent.

A study Essentia Health conducted in partnership with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota showed $1.25 million in savings for just 29 patients over six months.

Tags: life, health