Wednesday, Feb. 23, 9:45 AM - 10:45 AM  

Description:

Affinity Health System's Heart Failure Disease Management Program incorporates telehealth technology to augment discharged patients' post-treatment care to improve outcomes, reduce costly readmissions and enhance patients' quality of life.
 

Speaker Information:

Patrice Wolfe, vice president and general manager, Patient Solutions, RelayHealth, Atlanta

Paul Nyhof, director, Provincial Health Contact Centre, Winnipeg, Manitoba

Objectives:

• Identify the financial impact of congestive heart failure (CHF) in admissions and costs to the healthcare system, including current deficiencies in U.S. chronic care management, and CMS' push to achieve reductions in 30-day readmissions.
• Describe the deployment and goals of Affinity Health System's Telehealth Heart Failure Disease Management Program to provide comprehensive monitoring support to heart failure patients after discharge.
• Illustrate how the incorporation of disease management telehealth technology with physician protocol for proper CHF treatment can boost care coordination and quality outcomes.
• Recognize why hospitals and health systems should pay close attention to the healthcare reform bill's provision to cut reimbursement to hospitals for certain types of unnecessary readmissions, and how a disease management program is a realistic solution.
• Explain why using disease population management tools that include a telephonic system with built-in monitoring, assessment and enrollment surveys for systematic data capture can augment CHF post treatment.