Marshall Kettelhut, who lives with the challenge of managing a multitude of serious conditions such as diabetes, heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, obesity, high blood pressure, sleep apnea and irregular heartbeat — as well as bouts of anxiety and depression, frequently gets sneak peaks into how chronic disease will be managed in the future.
As an enrollee in a special program at Seton Total Health Partners in Austin, Texas, for patients who most frequently use hospital services through the emergency room or hospitalizations, he now works closely with a team comprising of medical staff, caseworker, dietitian and social worker to manage his conditions. In six months since his enrollment in the heart section of the program, he has respectively visited the ER and been hospitalized only once. His hospitalizations are down sharply from seven in 2011 and three in 2012 and nine ER visits in 2011 and 11 in 2012.