WellSky, a leading health and community care technology company, today announced they will work with The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center to implement in-home, heart failure care protocols that are intended to reduce hospital readmissions for patients discharged after admission for heart failure.
Heart failure is a leading cause of hospital readmission in the United States, with an average 30-day readmission rate of nearly 25 percent, generating more than one million hospital stays annually.
The WellSky Care Coordination platform and network of personal care and home health providers coordinates the delivery of care to heart failure patients who are voluntarily enrolled in the program at the time of hospital discharge. The WellSky protocols leverage cutting-edge ReDS™ technology, a system that can view the inside of the lungs of heart failure patients. Using this technology from Sensible Medical, clinicians can quickly and accurately assess lung fluid in heart failure patients, enabling the deployment of customized care interventions that are intended to prevent hospital readmissions.
Dr. Dan Bensimhon, a Medical Director of WellSky and Medical Director of Cone Health’s Advanced Heart Failure Clinic, a national leader in designing heart failure care at-home pathways, has been instrumental in designing these protocols. In applying the protocols in multiple health systems across North Carolina, Dr. Bensimhon has realized a 40 percent decrease in readmission rates. In a meta-analysis comprised of seven published clinical studies, researchers found a 60 percent reduction in heart failure readmission rates on average when using the ReDS technology, as compared to standard post-discharge heart failure care.
This new, transformational program powers collaboration between heart failure cardiologists, telehealth clinicians, nurses, and personal caregivers to optimize the care of these patients in the home. Dr. Brent Lampert and Dr. Raymond Benza will lead the program at Ohio State Wexner Medical Center.
“WellSky is excited to work with Dr. Lampert and Dr. Benza on the implementation of this innovative protocol that enables advanced clinical and operational workflows for complex care delivery,” said Bill Miller, WellSky CEO. “By integrating care coordination technology and scaled, connected provider networks, hospital systems can deliver improved outcomes through coordinated condition-specific protocols.”