Northeast Health Wangaratta’s ‘Hospital-in-the-Home’ program (HITH) have recently expanded their service to include supporting patients going home from hospital to optimise their heart failure management.
Linda Neate is a patient of the ‘Hearts@Home’ arm of HITH, after being diagnosed with heart failure in January. Linda presented to the emergency department with gradual worsening of shortness of breath over the previous week.
Linda said that after a few days in hospital undergoing tests and fine tuning medications, she was able to go home but remained under the care of the NHW medical team via ‘Hearts@Home’.
Linda received daily visits from a Hospital-in-the-Home nurse for clinical assessment and help to best manage her condition.
NHW has admitted 200 patients in the last twelve months with heart failure and early in the year implemented Heart Failure Information Packs as part of its Cardiovascular Ambassador Project.
Susan Christie is Clinical Coordinator of Hospital-in-the-Home and said that Hearts@Home was proving effective in helping people manage their condition at home, while still receiving clinical support.
“Hearts@Home is a great example of how clinicians from across multiple units work together in sequence along the patient journey to achieve the optimum outcome,” Susan said.
Linda Neate said that from a patient’s point of view, she was very grateful to have had this service.
“When you are in hospital, the environment is quite busy and you are not feeling well, which can make it hard to take in all the information that is presented to you,” Linda said.
“Having the HITH nurses visit me at home, making sure I was taking the right medications and doing all the right things to manage my condition, was such a valuable help.
“Being reviewed by both a cardiologist and another physician in the week after leaving the hospital was also very reassuring.
“By the time I was discharged from HITH 12 days after first presenting to ED, I knew I was on the right track and had confidence that my GP and other services such as complex care received the right information about the ongoing plan for me”.