Gentiva Clinician: Home Health Care Benefits Heart Failure Patients
Melville, N.Y., September 18, 2000—Despite significant advances in the pharmaceutical and surgical options available to patients with congestive heart failure (CHF), home health care remains one of the most important components in the management of this potentially fatal health condition, according to a senior clinician at North America’s leading provider of specialty pharmaceutical and home health care services. In an article titled "Home is Where the Healthiest Heart Is," just published in the September 2000 issue of Advance for Providers of Post-Acute Care, Deborah Brash, vice president, nursing operations for Gentiva Health Services, reports that well-managed home health care services can enhance medication compliance and necessary lifestyle changes in heart failure patients. The result often is improved outcomes for these patients, she says.
"With the support of well-managed home care services, CHF patients often improve their lifestyles and clinical compliance in ways that contribute to more positive outcomes and that often are not possible without such care," Brash writes in the article. Home health care, she contends, "affords a more hands-on approach, often ensuring higher compliance rates and associated improved outcomes."
CHF inflicts some five million Americans, or two percent of the United States population, and it is accompanied by some of the highest mortality rates of any disease or syndrome. Fifty percent of CHF patients die within five years of diagnosis. Yet, according to Brash, patients that adjust their lifestyles, including their diets, exercise and rest schedules, and maintain adherence to their recommended pharmaceutical regimen, typically have better clinical outcomes than those who do not. Further, patients who utilize home health care services typically have higher rates of compliance with recommended lifestyle adjustments and medication regimens, Brash observes.
As North America’s leading provider of specialty pharmaceutical and home health care services, Gentiva Health Services provides home health care services to patients with a wide array of diseases and syndromes, including CHF. The company also distributes specialty pharmaceutical therapies used in the management of acute and chronic conditions, including Flolan®, an intravenous therapy used in the management of pulmonary hypertension.
Gentiva Health Services (Nasdaq: GTIV) is North America’s leading provider of specialty pharmaceutical and home health care services. With nearly 400 locations in North America, the company had approximately $1.5 billion in 1999 revenues. For more information, visit Gentiva’s Web site, www.gentiva.com.
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