Don’t Skip a Beat!

Pop Quiz! What is the leading cause of readmission at UPMC Hamot?

Answer: Heart failure — when the heart doesn’t pump enough blood to meet the body’s needs.

The key to reducing these readmission rates is for patients to better manage their health after discharge. While patients may be willing to do this, they simply don’t have the knowledge and tools needed to be successful. To help meet this need, the Heart Failure Team at UPMC Hamot partnered with HHF to develop an enterprising solution — a comprehensive discharge plan focusing on self-management, wellness, and prevention, and direct health care services, combined with HF survival kits filled with all the tools these patients need to improve their health.

The results were impressive!

Readmission rates started declining almost immediately after the initiation of the plan in July 2020, with a 7.63% decline in 30-day readmissions of acute heart failure patients in just three short months.

Patients have responded with positive feedback as well. William E. Fassett, Jr. praised, “I am paycheck to paycheck and I would have never been able to pay for a digital scale or blood pressure cuff. I appreciate that Hamot Health Foundation believed in me and gave me this gift.”

Community health is one of our top priorities, and result-driven projects like this are a large part of our mission.

This year, HHF is pleased to commit an additional $40,000 to continue the HF survival kit program and purchase two smart tablets. The tablets will allow the HF Team to provide videos to further improve patient education.