Pilot programme slashes cardiac deaths by 73 percent

An innovative programme combining nursing and pharmacy teams that work with cardiac patients and their doctors has slashed heart attack deaths by 73 percent.

An innovative programme combining nursing and pharmacy teams that work with cardiac patients and their doctors has slashed heart attack deaths by 73 percent.The team is connected by technology tools that help them deliver care proven to improve health outcomes.

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George C. Halvorson, chairman and CEO of Kaiser Permanente (KP), a healthcare provider, associated with the project, stressed the importance of caregivers' training, coordination, and ability to use technology in achieving better health outcomes.Halvorson, joined by KP practitioners in Colorado, outlined how the organisation has put technology into the hands of health providers to enable a full spectrum of personalised and coordinated care. That spectrum includes proactive patient outreach, education, lifestyle adjustments and effective medication management, among other tactics.

"Technology itself cannot solve the health care crisis," Halvorson said. "Our Colorado region achieved quality care results by aligning people and technology in the most efficient care delivery system." "Front-line healthcare workers will be the lynchpin in transforming health care in this country," said John Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO, a voluntary federation of 56 national and international unions that represent 11 million workers, said a KP release.

The results of this pilot, the Collaborative Cardiac Care Service, were presented at the Washington DC briefing.