Optimal Medical Treatment is Important After a Heart Artery Blockage is Opened.
Our healthcare system is designed to reliably find heart artery blockages and open them. It is not designed to provide optimal medical treatment after the artery is opened. Many patients are dying and going into the hospital because we are not providing this patient-centered care. Throughout these discussions, we have proven that optimal medical treatment (OMT) alone is as good as OMT plus a stent in patients with heart artery disease. Too many people get a stent, but they don’t get OMT and that has deadly consequences.
Ten years after opening an artery, patients on OMT were half as likely to die as those not on OMT. Patients on best-practice OMT started early after the procedure reduced their risk of dying by a remarkable 90% while dramatically reducing cost of care. A team of nurses and pharmacists using protocols and focused on heart artery disease produced these results. They had the ability to learn who had never been seen by the team, who had not had a test or a visit, and who was not at goal for blood pressure etc. They were supported by a payment model that rewards achieving OMT. There is a large body of evidence supporting OMT as best practice in people with heart artery disease—the leading cause of death in the United States. Leading cardiologists say OMT should be a universal standard of care. If you are not receiving OMT after having a procedure to open a heart artery, you are more likely to die, and your care will cost more. Sign up for a free subscription to learn more about this essential treatment.