Case Study: WakeMed regains ACC Heart Failure accreditation and achieves 86% 7-day follow-up rate with Proficient Health's PH Connect

Helping WakeMed Regain ACC Heart Failure Accreditation

WakeMed was at risk of losing its American College of Cardiology (ACC) Heart Failure Accreditation after failing to meet the 75% goal for scheduling follow-up visits within 7 days of discharge. Attempts to improve scheduling using EPIC’s Cadence module raised rates from 35% to 69% but left gaps—especially for patients discharged after hours or from non-cardiology services. Proficient Health (PH Connect) was identified as the vendor/product to address the real-time communication and scheduling shortfall.

Proficient Health integrated EPIC with PH Connect so that heart-failure discharge orders trigger automatic, real-time messages routed to staff who can schedule follow-ups before patients leave; PH Connect messages average a 13-minute read time. As a result, WakeMed exceeded its goal with an 85.9% (≈86%) follow-up rate by November 2017, scheduled 47 follow-up appointments by year-end, regained ACC accreditation, and received a Silver Plus AHA Award.

WakeMed