Milner-Fenwick’s New Patient Education Heart Failure Products Transcend Hospital Walls

New Home Video Guide and Heart Failure booklet meet patients at their point of need.

Hunt Valley, MD (November 2011)—Milner-Fenwick has developed two new heart failure educational products to address the needs of patients living with this costly disease. The American Heart Association reports that as both the #1 cause of death in the United States and the leading chronic disease in our country, cardiovascular disease affects nearly 83 million people. Nearly 6 million Americans have heart failure.

The new Milner-Fenwick heart failure products support the on-going efforts of health care facilities to target a reduction in readmissions of heart failure patients and a reduction in Emergency Department visits through better patient education and understanding. Both new products take patient education to the home.

The video Living with Heart Failure: A Home Video Guide addresses newly diagnosed and newly discharged heart failure patients on the road to recovery and disease management. The one hour production incorporates topics on lifestyle and behavioral changes, warning signs, when to call the doctor, and medication understanding and adherence, the DVD gives patients a home reference tool covering all the information needed for daily heart failure self-management.

This home reference gives an overview of the essential self-care guidelines that healthcare providers need to cover at hospital discharge or in heart failure classes. Nancy Mannion, RN, Team Leader Preventative Cardiology at St. Agnes Hospital in Baltimore, MD, says, "Putting real patients in the video is huge. Being able to see someone else who has gone through what they (the patients) are going through is very beneficial."

The DVD’s can be purchased for $7.95 each in quantities of 100 or more, making it an affordable tool to send home with patients. It is also easily customizable for health care providers to brand the DVD’s with their facility information, building patient loyalty and satisfaction.

The 16-page Heart Failure booklet fulfills the Joint Commission’s Heart Failure National Inpatient Quality measure for providing heart failure patients with written instructions and educational materials on required topics at discharge. Completely updated from an earlier version the booklet gives patients information on activity level, diet, discharge medications, follow-up appointment, weight monitoring and what to do if symptoms worsen, and includes a section on smoking cessation. An overview of all the types of medications is provided, recommending patients to take medications as prescribed; encouraging them to work closely with their health care provider if they are experiencing side effects.

Heart Failure, a top priority in national health initiatives, is estimated by the American Heart Association to cost between $34–39 billion annually. The costs are expected to increase as more and more patients are diagnosed with heart failure. Currently one in five hospitalized patients is soon re-admitted with complications according to a New England Journal of Medicine study, a clear indicator of the long-term difficulties those patients have understanding and managing their disease. "The number 1 and 2 reasons for hospital readmissions are dietary and medication-related," notes JoAnne Nabozny, Milner-Fenwick’s product development manager, who describes the new heart failure products as hopeful and reassuring. "It’s about patients who have successfully taken control of their heart failure and can provide encouragement and real-life lessons learned by others."

The new products are in follow up to the five-part Heart Failure In-Facility patient education video series released in May. The In-Facility series addresses what causes heart failure, what the medications do and how patients can keep from coming back. Designed to be viewed at bedside or in the doctor’s office, noting the emerging Medicare rules for re-admissions, the series was designed to help hospitals improve outcomes and avoid penalties by equipping patients with the information required to manage their conditions.

The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission estimates the government spends $12 billion a year on "potentially preventable" readmissions for Medicare patients. Readmissions have become a focal point for hospitals wary of impending penalties for re-admits within the first 30 days as imposed by the CMS. Medicare penalties won't take effect until October 2012, but hospitals are currently being ranked on their re-admit stats on the Medicare website "Hospital Compare" feature, and many want to see those stats improved. Detailed, self-care instructions at discharge are key components to making that happen.

Milner-Fenwick plans to expand where patients can get heart failure information with the HealthClips format. These short 3-minute digital videos can be delivered across multiple digital platforms including web, digital signage and mobile devices. The new content will be added to the 435 currently available HealthClips titles. This format supports the recently launched HealthClips Rx prescriptive Health Education app co-developed with Preventice, a mobile health technology partner specializing in health applications. HealthClips Rx allows care providers to “prescribe” educational content, track and record back into EHR’s, and to email home care providers, family members and the patients the content that needs to be viewed. Patients can download the app to their own devices and have content whenever, wherever it is needed.

About Milner-Fenwick
Milner-Fenwick's award winning patient education videos guide patients toward better health. A library of over 600 health video programs incorporates best practices and medical guidelines for disease management, hospital safety and general wellness topics across many health categories. Used in hospitals, physicians’ offices, corporate wellness departments, health insurance, disease management companies and public health agencies, Milner-Fenwick videos are not advertiser supported, which ensures unbiased content and products.
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