Utah-based Intermountain Health is expanding its relationship with digital health company Story Health following a pilot program launched in January 2023 for patients with a new heart failure diagnosis.
Using Story Health’s program, which utilizes a virtual and asynchronous care model, Intermountain Health patients enrolled in the pilot program experienced a significant clinical improvement, including an increase in achieving medication optimization – with 80% of those medication changes handled without a clinic visit.
Additionally, they saw a lower readmission rate over the course of the program (14.5% vs. 18% national average).
“Intermountain has long been a leader in developing innovative models of care for treating complex patient populations. However, we need to continue to close remaining gaps in care to truly deliver best-in-class cardiology care,” said Kaley Graham, executive director of Intermountain Health’s cardiovascular clinical program, in a statement. “After demonstrating successful results during our pilot program, we are confident Story Health complements and enhances the work we do in the clinic to support cardiac conditions in the outpatient setting.”
In addition to the expansion of the heart failure program, the Intermountain and Story Health partnership has expanded to include patients with hypertension. Launched in April 2024, the hypertension pilot aims to improve the number of Intermountain hypertension patients achieving controlled blood pressure levels.
“Health systems often face challenges achieving optimal treatment plans for cardiology patients because of the reliance on frequent clinic visits. The math doesn’t work for the patients or the clinics – clinics only have so many appointment slots available, and frequent visits aren’t possible for many patients, especially those experiencing social barriers or in rural locations,” said Story Health CEO Tom Stanis, in a statement. “Intermountain’s wide reach and diversity of care settings provides the perfect test case to show that, when working together, we can execute a program that drives material patient impacts and improves clinic efficiency.”
In a February 2024 interview with Healthcare Innovation, Kirk Garratt, M.D., medical director of the Center for Heart & Vascular Health at ChristianaCare, and Story Health CEO Tom Stanis spoke about their collaboration to improve health outcomes for patients living with hypertension and heart failure in Wilmington, Del.
The partnership uses Story Health’s digital hybrid platform that provides patients with a dedicated health coach to ensure their care plan is followed and treatment goals are achieved. Through this approach, ChristianaCare said it has been able to address some health disparities, with a significant improvement in the number of Black patients adhering to prescribed doses of guideline-directed medical therapy for heart failure.
