Bridging the Transition from Hospital to Home: Effects of the VITAL Telehealth Program on Recovery for CABG Surgery Patients and their Caregivers

• Published in: Research in nursing & health Vol. 36; no. 6; pp. 540 - 553
• Main Authors: Keeping-Burke, Lisa, Purden, Margaret, Frasure-Smith, Nancy, Cossette, Sylvie, McCarthy, Frank, Amsel, Rhonda
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hoboken, NJ Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.12.2013; Wiley; Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
• Subjects: Adult; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Aged; Anxiety; Anxiety - prevention & control; Anxiety-Depression; Biological and medical sciences; Cardiology. Vascular system; Caregivers; Caregivers - psychology; Carers; Continuity of Patient Care - organization & administration; Coronary Artery Bypass - rehabilitation; coronary artery bypass graft surgery; Coronary heart disease; Depression; Depression - prevention & control; Doctors; Female; Formulae; health care utilization; Heart; Heart surgery; home care; Home health care; Humans; Male; Medical sciences; Middle Aged; Mood disorders; Nursing; Patient Acceptance of Health Care - psychology; Patients; Postoperative Care - methods; Postoperative period; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Quality of Life; Surgery (general aspects). Transplantations, organ and tissue grafts. Graft diseases; Surgery of the heart; telehealth; Telemedicine; Treatment Outcome; health care utilization; Caregiver; Anxiety disorder; Cardiovascular disease; Recovery; caregivers; Telemedicine; telehealth; At home; Graft; Anxiety; Hospital; Mood disorder; Human; Program; Use; Depression; Patient; Coronary heart disease; Care; coronary artery bypass graft surgery; home care; Coronary artery bypass; Transition; Healthcare; anxiety; depression
• ISSN: 0160-6891; 1098-240X
• DOI: 10.1002/nur.21571

The purpose of this randomized trial was to determine whether coronary artery bypass graft surgery patients and their caregivers who received telehealth follow‐up had greater improvements in anxiety levels from pre‐surgery to 3 weeks after discharge than did those who received standard care. Secondary outcomes included changes in depressive symptoms and patients' contacts with physicians. No group differences were noted in changes in patients' anxiety and depressive symptoms, but patients in the telehealth group had fewer physician contacts (p = .04). Female caregivers in the telehealth group had greater decreases in anxiety than those in standard care (p < .001), and caregivers of both genders in the telehealth group had greater decreases in depressive symptoms (p = .03). © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Res Nurs Health 36: 540–553, 2013