SUDBURY, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--iGetBetter, Inc., a supplier of post-acute care transition solutions, announced today the expansion of its successful pilot program for patients suffering from Congestive Heart Failure (CHF) at Signature Healthcare Brockton Hospital to a commercial deployment that will also include hypertension patients. Signature Healthcare includes Brockton Hospital, a nonprofit teaching hospital south of Boston, and Signature Medical Group, 150 employed primary and specialty care physicians practicing in 7 locations. The iGetBetter cloud-based platform bridges transition of care from hospital to home and engages patients to play an active role in their own care, thus improving outcomes and helping reduce readmissions.
Initiated as a pilot in February, 2014 by Signature Healthcare Brockton Hospital’s Homeward Bound Program for CHF patients who were categorized as high risk for 30-day readmissions, 35 patients were enrolled by December 2014. During the pilot period, none were readmitted to the hospital for CHF related complications. In addition, there were considerable reductions in emergency department visits, inpatient stays, and outpatient appointments for cardiology and internal medicine, ranging from 68% to 92%.
“We created the Homeward Bound program to help reduce unnecessary readmissions of CHF patients,” said Michelle Heath, R.N., coordinator of Signature Healthcare Brockton Hospital’s Homeward Bound Program. “Our readmission rate was 27%, and the national average is 25%. The iGetBetter system helped us engage patients in their own care and allowed us to intervene before an ED visit or readmission became necessary, and helped us to dramatically reduce readmissions. Because of our excellent results with iGetBetter, we are expanding its use to hypertension patients.”
In the CHF pilot, patients were assigned a clinician-approved CHF Care Plan, and issued iPad minis for the communication of daily care plan instructions. The patients also received Bluetooth-enabled weight scales and blood pressure cuffs used to automatically gather biometric data. These data points were communicated via the iPad mini to the Homeward Bound program clinicians’ dashboard, including alerts if a patient’s data exceeded thresholds set by the clinicians, allowing them to intervene if necessary.
“Signature Healthcare Brockton Hospital is a very forward-thinking provider. The iGetBetter platform allows its conscientious clinicians to increase their virtual presence with their patients, to engage them in their own care, and to intervene quickly before patients decompensate clinically to the point of requiring ED visits or hospitalization,” said David Lebudzinski, M.D., Chief Medical Officer at iGetBetter. “Their Homeward Bound program is to be complimented as a very successful example of how providers can proactively improve care transition for their patients, improve outcomes and reduce costs.”
About iGetBetter
Established in 2013 and headquartered in Sudbury, MA., iGetBetter, Inc., develops, markets and services a mobile, Web and cloud-based care transition solution designed to help healthcare organizations reduce readmissions by engaging patients in their treatments and recovery as they transition from hospital to home. For more information, please visit www.igetbetter.com or contact info@igetbetter.com.
About Signature Healthcare
Signature Healthcare is a multi-specialty, not for profit hospital and physician group comprised of Brockton Hospital and more than 150 physicians practicing in 11 ambulatory locations. We are one of the only not-for-profit community based healthcare delivery systems in Southeastern MA providing the full range of high quality primary care, specialty care, hospital care and related ancillary services on a coordinated basis delivered at a low cost. We are an affiliate of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical Faculty Physicians at BIDMC and the Floating Hospital for Children at Tufts Medical Center.MySignatureCare.org
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