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 diagnosis of heart failure.
Thanks to Story Health’s program, which utilizes a virtual, asynchronous care model, Intermountain Health patients enrolled in the pilot program experienced significant clinical improvement, including an increase in achieving medication optimization—80% of those medication changes were managed without a clinic visit.
Additionally, they observed a lower readmission rate throughout the program (14.5% versus the national average of 18%).
“Intermountain has long been a leader in developing innovative models of care for treating complex patient populations. However, we must continue to close the remaining gaps in care to truly provide best-in-class cardiology care,” Kaley Graham, executive director of Intermountain Health’s cardiovascular clinical program, said in a statement. “After demonstrating successful outcomes during our pilot program, we are confident that Story Health will complement and enhance 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 partnership between Intermountain and Story Health has expanded to include patients with hypertension. The hypertension pilot program, which launched in April 2024, aims to improve the number of patients with hypertension at Intermountain who achieve controlled blood pressure levels.
“Health systems often face challenges in achieving optimal treatment plans for cardiology patients due to a reliance on frequent clinic visits. The math doesn’t work for patients or clinics — clinics only have a limited number of available appointments, and frequent visits aren’t possible for many patients, especially those who experience social barriers or live in rural areas,” Story Health CEO Tom Stanis said in a statement. “Intermountain’s broad reach and diversity of care settings provide the perfect test case to demonstrate that when we work together, we can execute a program that creates material impacts for patients and improves clinic efficiency.”
In a February 2024 interview with Healthcare Innovation, Kirk Garratt, MD, medical director of ChristianaCare’s Center for Heart and Vascular Health, and Story Health CEO Tom Stanis discussed 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, which provides patients with a dedicated health coach to ensure their care plan is followed and treatment goals are met. Through this approach, ChristianaCare said it has been able to address some health disparities, with significant improvement in the number of Black patients adhering to prescribed doses of guideline-directed medical therapy for heart failure.
