• Amy Charlebois, Bonnie Quinlan, Ruth Coulton, Julie Sawyer, Erika MacPhee, Tammy Lafreniere, Emilie Serrano, Marc Ruel, Elsayed Elmestekawy, and Vincent Chan.
• Division of Cardiac Surgery, University of Ottawa Heart Institute, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
• J. Thorac. Cardiovasc. Surg. 2024 Sep 1; 168 (3): 898904.e1898-904.e1.

ObjectiveRestrictions to care access during the pandemic along with the increasing complexity of patients awaiting cardiac surgery provides unique challenges for care delivery. The University of Ottawa Heart Institute has developed a novel multidisciplinary digital platform, the Prehab Automated Follow-Up (AFU) Program, which delivers patient/caregiver teaching regarding risk factor mitigation, tracks patient symptoms, and screens for optimization using best practice guidelines. This study was conducted to quantify patient outcomes following initiation of the AFU Program.MethodsPatients awaiting elective cardiac surgery are enrolled and screened via automated telephone conversation, according to best practice guidelines, and a Short Form-12 preoperative assessment. Following this screen, patients are referred for an in-person assessment by an appropriate multidisciplinary team member; namely, a diabetes specialist, physiotherapist, dietitian, smoking cessation counselor, social worker, vocational counselor, and/or psychologist.ResultsSince initiation in February 2021, the AFU Program has enrolled more than 1237 patients with 508 multidisciplinary team referrals prompted by the AFU screening platform. Before program initiation, there were no multidisciplinary team referrals for preoperative optimization. Compared with patients treated between February 2020 and February 2021, there was a 2.5% decrease in hospital readmission rate within 30 days of surgery, a 0.6-day shorter hospital stay, and a 2.5% decrease in surgical site infection.ConclusionsOur cardiac surgery AFU Program reduced adverse health outcomes for patients by identifying and optimizing risk factors that increased quality of patient care. The AFU Program provides patient/caregiver engagement through educational support and multidisciplinary team counseling.Copyright © 2023 The American Association for Thoracic Surgery. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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