Guillem Bruch, director of medicine and R&D at Boehringer Ingelheim Spain.
Every year in Spain, 131,568 people are diagnosed with heart failure (CI). This chronic pathology prevents the heart from having sufficient capacity to pump blood and thereby deliver enough oxygen and nutrients to the rest of the organs. In the most complicated cases this can lead to a hospitalization. In fact, HF is responsible for between three and five percent of all admissions, and is positioned as the leading cause of hospitalization in people over 65 years of age and of unscheduled hospitalization. In addition, it is estimated that the number of admissions will grow by 50 percent over the next 25 years.
However, not all forecasts are negative. Advances in research and the daily work of all professionals involved in HF care help to draw a more hopeful future. Different studies indicate that adequate care during hospital admission and a follow-up plan and transition of care upon discharge prevent most readmissions, as well as increase quality of life and survival.
With the aim of translating these findings into an action plan that can be applied in Spanish hospitals, a group of health experts, coordinated by Boehringer Ingelheimhas created the project MAIC Continuum. This program defines how the optimal process of transition to hospital discharge should be for patients with this disease and offers a series of tools that facilitate its implementation
To do this, part of the job of a multidisciplinary group of experts, made up of experts in Cardiology, Internal Medicine, Primary Care, Hospital Pharmacy and Primary Care Pharmacy; in addition to profiles of health professionals linked to health management, patients and nursing professionals. Thus, the program provides a global and integrated vision of how the hospital discharge process might be improved of patients with HF. Regarding your field of knowledge, Beatrice Calderona hospital pharmacist at Hospital Son Llàtzer, indicates that HF care is currently focused exclusively on the urgent acute patient, and that it is important to move towards care that takes a greater perspective of the chronic patient. In addition, it points out the need to promote continuous and specialized training for hospital pharmacists.
“MAIC Continuum provides some key measures to improve patient management at the pharmaceutical level. Among other things, it helps to adjust the medication of patients, find the optimal treatment for each person and guarantee adherence”, says Calderón.
For its part, Maria Angeles Garcia RescalvoManaging Director of the Virgen de las Nieves University Hospital, highlights that “this project contributes to the personalized and transversal attention of the patient with HF, improving the transition between primary and hospital care; it also reduces superadded costs due to complications derived from poor control and improves the satisfaction and quality perceived by our patients as a value contribution of our quality healthcare”.
The program also hasl Endorsement of several of the most prominent scientific societiessuch as the Spanish Society of Cardiology (SEC), the Spanish Society of Internal Medicine (SEMI), the Spanish Society of Primary Care Physicians (Semergen), the Spanish Society of Family and Community Medicine (Semfyc), the Spanish Society of Health Directors ( Sedisa) and the Spanish Society of Hospital Pharmacy (SEFH).
Integrated care, with benefits for the SNS and patients
Along with optimizing patient care, MAIC Continuum also brings advantages to the National Health System (SNS). The developed model helps to achieve a more efficient management of the CI, contributing to reduce costs associated, which currently account for 2.5 percent of the total health cost. The project, already in the implementation phase, is organized in four stages:
- Creation of the MAIC Continuum model, with the definition of a transition program and the development of tools that facilitate its implementation. Among the aspects considered are the clinical trajectory of the patient, management tools and a system of indicators for the evaluation of the improvements obtained.
- Territorial implementation of the modelwith the development of the model in different hospitals in the national territory, from a local adaptation perspective and with actions to support the professionals involved in the change.
- Continuous monitoring of the progress of the implementation in each one of the centers, collecting data for the periodic evaluation of the results. With this, it is possible to identify the areas of improvement for each center.
- Continuous review and update of the MAIC Continuum model to incorporate the improvement points identified throughout the process.
The project is part of the MAIC program, a program led by Boehringer Ingelheim that seeks to improve the health of people with HF, and contribute to a model of more sustainable management for the health system.
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