Ehab N. Mady, DO, new medical director for the Vascular Services Program of the Jeffrey M. Carlton Heart and Vascular Institute at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian, has introduced and helped launch the Peripheral Arterial Disease (PAD) Supervised Walking Exercise Program that will help physicians who are looking for a comprehensive and long-term solution for their patients.
The program is an example of hospitals and physicians coming up with solutions currently not directly reimbursed by payers but are vital in the context of population health management, according to Dr. Mady.
“This is the first of its kind in Orange County. Few hospitals around the country offer this service due to lack of coverage,” Dr. Mady told PNN. He said physicians can now refer their patients to the program by contacting Hoag and requesting an order sheet for the PAD walking program.
Medicare does not currently reimburse the program, and patients have to pay $1,200. While this does not cover the expenses of running the program, Hoag is investing in it with a long-term goal of achieving better outcomes and thus lowering overall costs of cardiovascular care.
The program was launched in September and is not known to many doctors in the community, Dr. Mady said, so there is a need for both physician and patient education about the benefits it brings not only in terms of lowering overall costs of treating cardiovascular conditions but also improving quality of life.
Dr. Mady told PNN the supervised and carefully monitored walking program that goes hand in hand with medication management is key. A walking program is the first line of therapy for peripheral arterial disease patients with claudication, according to American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association guidelines. “It is evidence-based and according to the CLEVER trial, the largest of its kind and published in Circulation in December 2013, those patients can do better than the patients who receive an iliac artery stent.”
Monitored by a trained registered nurse and an exercise physiologist, patients going through the PAD Supervised Walking Program undergo medical assessments during each of their one-hour visits, three days per week. Their progress is meticulously monitored over six months.
“We are honored to have Dr. Mady lead the Vascular Services Program,” said Tom Lonergan, executive operations director of the Jeffrey M. Carlton Heart and Vascular Institute. “The PAD Walking Program is just one example of the services Dr. Mady is developing to improve each patient’s overall quality of life.”
For more information about the Jeffrey M. Carlton Heart & Vascular Institute, call (949) 764-5550 or visit www.hoag.org/JCHVI. To request an order sheet for the PAD program for their patients, physicians can contact Hoag by calling (949) 764-5594, then faxing the order to (949) 764-6207.
