Taking heart care to the streets
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Two Harborview nurses are leaving the hospital to make "house calls" at tents, bus stops and cars to bring life-saving heart care to people where they are.
Why it matters: The Community Heart Failure Program not only stabilizes patients' cardiac health but also reduces hospital admissions, lengths of stay and emergency department visits, according to UW Medicine.
By the numbers: As of June, the mobile clinic that started with 16 patients in 2020 had more than quadrupled its reach, treating about 75 people between Seattle's north end and Auburn, Fox 13 reported.
- ER visits from the team's patients were reduced by 25% and hospital stays were shortened by 43% over six months, per Fox.
What happened: Nurse practitioner Jaimie Pechan and colleague Kate Smith, a registered nurse, recognized that some patients seemed caught in a cycle: They'd show up at Harborview in dire condition, get admitted, receive two weeks of resource-intensive care, get discharged — and never appear at a follow-up appointment.
- Then they'd be back, per UW Medicine.
- Out of frustration one day, the two nurses put blood-draw supplies and a blood pressure cuff into a backpack and walked into the neighborhood, according to UW Medicine.
What they're saying: "It just seemed like we needed a different way to reach these patients," Smith said in an article about the program.
Why it works: People with heart failure may experience fatigue and when you add lack of transportation, addiction, mental health issues and other struggles, it can be unrealistic to expect people to show up for scheduled medical appointments, according to Pechan.