Nurse care managers can provide the support needed to help patients lower cholesterol after a heart attack.
Keeping cholesterol levels down, through medication and lifestyle change, is vital after a heart attack if a recurrence is to be prevented. Yet, for many patients, this can be hard to achieve - they may need to alter their diet completely, and perhaps they find it hard to stick to prescribed medication.

A team at the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing has been looking at how nurse care managers can support patients after a heart attack. A group of 228 patients was assigned either to usual care, or to the support of a nurse care manager. Usual care involved cholesterol-lowering medication and a report to the patient's primary care physician, who could then provide the support.

The nurse care manager provided counselling, feedback, telephone support and communication with the primary care team. He or she would devote about five hours or less time per year to each patient. This achieved a great deal - for 65 per cent of patients in the nurse support group attained normal cholesterol, compared to just 35 per cent in the usual care group. Evidently active support for cholesterol-lowering has great benefit for the patient after a heart attack and is likely to reduce overall health care costs.