Salir
Michelle Wofford (pictured above with her doctor) was dedicated to being fit. She rarely missed more than a day or 2 at the gym. When she began having mild chest pain during workouts, she assumed it was a cold.
As time went on, she realized it was something more serious. “I’d walk up the stairs and be out of breath. I couldn’t even enjoy simple things that I like to do,” she said. “I was thinking, ‘I’m 42, I’m too young for this.’”
Wofford’s doctors found a blockage in her coronary artery. They placed a small, expandable tube — called a stent — into her blood vessel to restore blood flow to her heart. In a few days, she went home to her son and husband, feeling both relief and fear.
“I really didn’t know what to expect, and I remember telling my husband, ‘What if I eat the wrong thing and all of a sudden, I have this major heart attack?’” she said.
Home, but not alone
Thanks to Kaiser Permanente’s virtual cardiac rehabilitation program, Wofford was home, but not alone. Her care team came with her in the form of a wearable fitness tracker on her wrist.
“We’re able to monitor patients’ steps, monitor their heart rates, and all that information is being analyzed by our nurse case managers,” explained Chileshe Price, MD, Wofford’s cardiologist. “They reach out to the patients on a weekly basis and guide them through those critical steps after a cardiac event to bring them healing and recovery.”
The benefits of virtual cardiac rehabilitation
For patients with heart disease, lifestyle changes can reduce the risk of secondary cardiac events. Changes may include increasing physical activity and eating a healthy diet.
Rehabilitation programs that encourage these behaviors are widely available, but few patients enroll in programs outside their homes, and even fewer complete them.
Kaiser Permanente began offering virtual cardiac rehabilitation in June 2019. More than 80% of patients who join the program complete it, compared to a national average of less than 50%. Less than 2% of patients in the program need to be readmitted to the hospital, compared to 10% to 15% for most programs.
Here’s how it works.
- Participants wear a smartwatch that sends them reminders to exercise.
- Their activity data is sent to their care team.
- During weekly phone calls with a nurse case manager, patients receive feedback on their progress and can ask questions and raise concerns.
The support Wofford received from Dr. Price and case manager Azure Looney, RN, was key to her recovery.
“They gave me hope,” she said. “This extreme thing happened to me, and it’s not the end for me. I can still live my life as I did before.”
Learn more about cardiac care at Kaiser Permanente.