Navicent Health Introduces Tailored Behavioral-Modeling Videos for Patient Recovery

Atrium Health Navicent has partnered with behavioral healthcare media designer Wellflix Inc to provide behavioral-modeling self-care recovery videos for its heart-failure patients.

The Wellflix award-winning video suite provides patients and their caregivers visual instructions on the essential in-home daily activities for living well after heart failure, including weight tracking, diet, medication compliance, exercise, and recognizing warning signs of complications. Designed in collaboration with a Harvard Medical School teaching hospital, the Wellflix heart-failure recovery series - delivered via mobile device, computer or DVD -- is the first-ever patient education self-care video series to be tailored to each patient's gender, ethnicity, and language.

"At Atrium Health Navicent, we offer our patients every means to improve their health outcomes after discharge, and well-designed media is simply another way to increase patient self-efficacy, which is essential to initiating positive change and creating positive outcomes for patients," said Christopher Hendry, MD, Chief Medical Officer for The Medical Center, Navicent Health. "We recognize the potential of tailored, behavioral modeling videos to help patients as they recover and lower their probability of readmission."

Today, many hospitals offer media on their patient portals, but Atrium Health Navicent is among the first to provide individually-tailored behavioral modeling patient-recovery videos using its in-hospital patient portal, online delivery and DVDs that patients and caregivers may use in their home.

"As an integrated system of physician practices, hospitals, and outpatient centers, Atrium Health Navicent is committed to delivering a successful health care experience to patients and their families," said Dr. Hendry. "This arrangement with Wellflix media further extends our commitment to provide our patient population whatever they may need to understand and follow their recovery treatment, and for our providers to fully align on the key principles of patient-focused, value-based care."

Behavioral modeling videos are not only an especially good option for patients for whom printed instructions are problematic, but also for highly literate patients who have difficulty remembering what was told to them in the hospital by their healthcare providers. Videos can be viewed 24 hours a day, seven days a week, whenever needed.

"The staff here is so excited about these videos," said Carol Babcock, Director of Healthy Communities, Atrium Health Navicent. "When we saw the Wellflix videos, we immediately recognized how important they would be to our patients. They're much different from anything we've seen before. They're concise and show exactly what to do to recover, which patients often forget once they're back home. And each has brief "˜teachback' questions to ensure patient understanding."

"We're delighted that Atrium Health Navicent patients and providers find our Wellflix Heart Failure Recovery videos easy to use and effective in helping patients learn how to follow their treatment plans," says Wellflix CEO Jonathon Winder. "Changing long-time habits and adopting new and lasting behaviors are understandably hard for adults. Behavioral modeling, supported by personal outreach from clinicians, is arguably the best way to help patients know how to recover."

Atrium Health Navicent is carefully monitoring the results of this new tailored, in-home video education approach to patient recovery, and is seeking to extend its approach to other recovery issues, such as COPD, pneumonia, diabetes and heart attack.

"Improving patient outcomes - even while the patient has returned home - results in big wins for all," notes Dr. Hendry. "It's success for patients, their families, the hospital, and the entire health care system."

About Atrium Health Navicent

Atrium Health Navicent was incorporated on November 17, 1994, as a nonprofit corporation whose primary purpose is to coordinate The Medical Center, Navicent Health and other affiliated entities in their mission of providing a comprehensive continuum of high quality, reasonably priced healthcare services to the region. Atrium Health Navicent has 970 beds for medical, surgical, rehabilitation and hospice purposes. The health system includes The Medical Center, Navicent Health, a nationally recognized tertiary teaching hospital; Atrium Health Navicent Beverly Knight Olson Children's Hospital, the region's only dedicated pediatric hospital; Atrium Health Navicent Baldwin and Medical Center of Peach County, Atrium Health Navicent, both rural critical access hospitals; Rehabilitation Hospital, Atrium Health Navicent, the region's oldest and most experienced rehabilitation provider; Pine Pointe, Atrium Health Navicent, which provides palliative and hospice care in homes and in its facility; Carlyle Place, Atrium Health Navicent, the area's first continuing care retirement community; Navicent Health Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Atrium Health Navicent; as well as diagnostic and home care services. For more information, please visit www.navicenthealth.org.

About Wellflix Inc

Wellflix award-winning behavioral-modeling videos help patients and their home-based family caregivers provide the best possible care once the patient is discharged from the hospital. Wellflix draws on Social Cognitive Theory to create short videos using the "power of show" to enable patient recovery outside the clinical setting, when professional care is not at hand. The Wellflix focus is to reduce hospital readmissions and chronic care costs by improving health literacy and in-home self-care health management behavior. For more information on Wellflix unique patient education model and products, please visit us at www.wellflix.net or call 1-877-WELLFLIX