How to replicate a successful program underway at Essentia Health that uses telehealth technology to track patients with congestive health failure, is the topic of an AHRQ Health Care Innovations Exchange being held Wednesday in Rockville, Md.

The Essentia Health Heart Failure Program (formerly St. Mary's Duluth Clinic Heart Failure Program) began more than a decade ago in Duluth, Minn. The program uses a special telemonitoring scale that records patient weight, asks them questions about their health, and transmits the vital information to a cardiac nurse, who can make changes to medications and track patient condition on a daily basis. 

While national hospital readmission rates for congestive heart failure patients at six months are 40 to 50 percent, Essentia's sickest heart failure patients, who use the telescale, have readmission rates from 0 to 2 percent. Readmission rates for all patients in the program have hovered around 3 to 7 percent.

The cost benefit is also impressive. An Essentia Health study conducted in partnership with insurance company Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota showed $1.25 million in savings for just 29 patients over six months.

These statistics caught the attention of a federal program designed to quickly spread great healthcare ideas across the nation – the Health Care Innovations Exchange, part of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).

Linda Wick, NP, Heart Failure program manager, is showcasing this concept today before a panel representing investors, insurers, charitable foundations and healthcare consultants at the AHRQ Innovations. The group will discuss how this program's success could be replicated at other institutions around the country.

"The Innovations Exchange does a rigorous review of programs before deciding to share them nationwide," Wick says. "Our Heart Failure Program is proven to improve patients' care while decreasing costs. We are at the forefront of what healthcare reform is all about."

Being recognized by the Health Care Innovations Exchange is one of the many ways Essentia Health is providing creative solutions to healthcare challenges, says Chief Medical Officer Carl Heltne, MD. A cardiologist by training, Heltne founded the Heart Failure Program in 1998.

"Our vision for Essentia Health is to be a national leader in providing high quality, cost-effective integrated healthcare services, particularly in rural areas," says Heltne. "This program improves quality of life while substantially reducing costs. It's exactly the type of leadership we are talking about."

Every day, Jack Luzovich, a 61 year-old congestive heart failure patient at Essentia Health, steps on his telescale to keep him in his northern Minnesota home, rather than the hospital.

Last summer, his health hit a low point. "I was retaining fluid and my weight was going up and down," he remembers. "I couldn't walk more than 10 to 15 feet. I was on oxygen, jaundiced, and had almost no kidney function."

Luzovich sees the value of the program for heart failure patients like him. A year after he began using the scale, his health is greatly improved. He's back enjoying his favorite hobbies, like woodworking in his basement.

"Now I'm running up and down stairs," he says. "Before, it was up two steps and stop."
Luzovich had a left ventricular assist device placed last summer, which keeps his heart pumping. As he waits on the heart transplant list, he continues to use his telescale and keeps in regular contact with his caregivers at Essentia Health.

"It's been a lifesaver for my wife and me," Luzovich says. "This keeps you from getting into really major trouble. The nurses in the program have become like family."

Jack Luzovich steps on a special scale that helps keep him in his northern Minnesota home, rather than the hospital. The telemonitoring scale is part of Essentia Health’s Heart Failure Program. Photo courtesy of Essentia Health.