Mountain Valley Hospice & Palliative Care is collaborating with the American Heart Association, and the National Partnership for Healthcare and Hospice Innovation (NPHI) to offer a new Advanced Cardiac Care Program.
Each year, more Americans die from heart disease than any other condition, including cancer. Heart disease is the number one killer of women and is also a leading cause for hospitalization. Patients with congestive heart failure alone account for more than one million inpatient admissions annually.
“This new program and its care guidelines are an absolute priority, especially as heart patients continue to postpone medical care because of COVID-19, even as heart disease puts them at greater risk. In fact, cardiovascular complications contribute to roughly 40 percent of all COVID-19 related deaths. We can help to reduce these terrible statistics,” said Kristie Szarpa, senior director of practice management & serious illness services at Mountain Valley Hospice & Palliative Care.
“Our new advanced cardiac care program will improve hospice care for heart patients, and keep them in a family-like atmosphere,” said Tracey Dobson, president and CEO of Mountain Valley Hospice & Palliative Care.
“It is a complete and unnecessary tragedy that only five percent of heart failure patients who are discharged from the hospital ever utilize in-home hospice services,” said Carole Fisher, president of NPHI. “Far too many patients die alone in a hospital or nursing facility, when instead our hospice teams could care for them wherever they reside, and they could enjoy a far higher quality of life surrounded by loved ones.”
