This is the second private center to join the innovative program endorsed by the main Scientific Societies.
Every year, there are more than 107.000 hospital admissions in Spain due to heart failure (HF), a chronic disease that prevents the heart from having sufficient capacity to pump blood. It is the first cause of hospitalization in people over 65 years of age and, in global terms, it represents between 3 and 5% of hospital admissions in Spain and forecasts point to a 50% growth in the admission rate over the next 25 years. .
With this objective of improving the transition process to hospital discharge of patients with HF, the La Luz University Hospital, will implement the program MAIC Continuum, powered by Boehringer Ingelheim and designed by HF healthcare experts to improve the care of patients with heart failure and minimize the risk of hospital readmissions. In this sense, we must keep in mind that hospital discharge is a crucial moment, since it is necessary to achieve, among other aspects, the patient's adherence to the treatment and personalize it as much as possible by adjusting the pharmacology to the patient's evolution.
This is the second private center to join the program and, as explained by the Dr. Roberto Martín Reyes, head of service Cardiology of the La Luz University Hospital, with the MAIC Continuum program we hope to achieve homogenization of the management of patients with heart failure within the hospital, and thus obtain better health results in the care process.
For its part, Ana Ampudia, responsible for the Cardio Renal Metabolic area in Market Access & Healthcare Affairs at Boehringer Ingelheim, has valued this trust by stating that "the entry of centers in the group Quironsalud "It is an important milestone to incorporate into the project the vision from a private setting where there are new challenges and key factors in the approach to patients with heart failure."
The health costs associated with heart failure (HF) in Spain represent 3,8% of the total health cost and hospitalizations concentrate a significant economic burden. In fact, it is estimated that hospital costs (including transplant costs) amount to almost 470 million euros per year. For all these reasons, HF is a challenge for the Spanish health system and one of the critical moments is the transition between hospital discharge and the beginning of outpatient follow-up. Optimizing this process minimizes the risk of hospital readmissions and improves the patient's quality of life.
Multidisciplinary approach to hospital discharge
El SCHEDULE MAIC Continuum defines what the optimal transition process to hospital discharge for patients with this disease should be and offers a series of tools that facilitate its implementation. The methodology is based on the multidisciplinary work of the different health professionals who must intervene at the time of the patient's hospital discharge and outpatient follow-up. «In the case of the La Luz University Hospital, various health professionals will develop the program, made up of the cardiology, internal medicine, emergency and primary care services. The working group is led by the Dr. Teresa Alvarado, responsible for Heart Failure Unit of the UICAR," says Roberto Martín Reyes.
The plan is a flexible model and will adjust to the real context of each hospital that, in the first instance, performs a self-diagnosis of the situation, that is, how they discharge the patient with HF from hospital and what factors they consider can be improved from the different medical areas. "From this self-assessment, we will specify an Action Plan that, in addition, can be evaluated based on previously established indicators to assess the results," says Dr. Martín Reyes..
Currently, more than 20 Spanish hospitals participate in the MAIC Continuum program and are endorsed by the Spanish Society of Cardiology (SEC), the Spanish Society of Internal Medicine (SEMI), and the Spanish Society of Primary Care Physicians (SEMERGEN). , the Spanish Society of Family and Community Medicine (semFYC), the Spanish Society of Health Managers (SEDISA) and the Spanish Society of Hospital Pharmacy (SEFH).