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Smart with your Heart

Heart failure patients avoiding readmission to hospital thanks to £1.1 million Smart with your Heart project

Dozens of patients are benefitting from of a £1.1 million pilot project to help reduce the number of heart failure patients being readmitted to hospital or needing a visit to A&E.

University Hospital of North Midlands is working with NHS partner Midlands Partnership NHS Trust as well as three digital companies, using their new, commercially available technology to provide online resources and support to help patients with heart failure understand and manage their condition with confidence.

Smart with your heart - which helps prevent people with chronic long term heart failure from needed a visit to A&E and from being readmitted to hospital has identified the impact of the initiative during its first three months.

Heart failure patients identified to take part in the pilot can use RECAP, an online personal library prescribed with information from their heart failure nurse or consultant;  FLO, a text messaging service for patient self-manage their health care through text message to a healthcare co-ordinator as well as  accessing social prescribing through iNavigator which  gives clinicians the opportunity to prescribe patients, as part of their discharge, a referral to local community and local groups to help patients with their social, emotional and psychological support.  

Dr Dargoi Satchi, Project Lead and Cardiology Consultant, said: "Approximately 7 out of 10 people leaving hospital with heart failure are re-admitted within 12 months. Sometimes this is because of a gradual deterioration in health and being unsure of what action to take. It may also be due to a lack of knowledge concerning options available for help or support.

"We are pleased that early indications show that the pilot project can help support a reduction in both hospital and A&E re-admissions."

"Feedback from patients during the first three months of the project shows that 79% of participants did not need to visit A&E and 74% did not need to see their GP. Patients also reported they were more confident in managing their own health at home."

He added: "These early results are from the first few patients on the project and therefore it is too early to determine the true impact of the project. However, from the results so far, we hope that if the project was rolled out nationally it could mean a reduction of 24,000 of the 80,000 heart failure admissions annually - with a potential cost saving of £45 million and freeing approximately 240,000 beds."

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