Coronary Heart Disease is the most common cause of disability and premature death, responsible for up to 88,000 deaths per year. UK annual expenditure reaches £2 billion per year on healthcare costs for treating coronary heart disease alone.
A robust cardiac rehabilitation service can reduce cardiac readmissions by up to 56%. Analysis has also suggested improvements in the service nationally could release over £30 million per year in savings that could be reinvested in our NHS.
In January 2014, the new Care4TodayTM Heart Health Solutions cardiac rehabilitation programme was opened at Wycombe Hospital. The Care4TodayTM program has been developed by Janssen Healthcare Innovation, a subsidiary of Wycombe-based Johnson and Johnson, in collaboration with Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust.
This video featuring Bucks NHS Trust staff explains:
Care4TodayTM Heart Health Solutions has benefits for patients and for clinicians. The programme is designed to improve workflow and efficiency of cardiac rehabilitation staff through the use of a technology platform that integrates with a hospital’s current IT system.
Patients are supported in managing their condition with a comprehensive curriculum to encourage lasting behavioural change through exercise training, risk factor management, and nutritional guidance. This helps to prevent a further admission to hospital.
As the programme became embedded within the cardiac rehabilitation service, waiting times came down by 51%. There were also significant improvements in enrolment rate, patients seen per staff member, length of time in the programme and better patient outcomes.
Congratulations to the staff of the Trust and Janssen on everything they are achieving to improve results for local people while driving down costs. This is just the kind of innovation which our NHS needs.
