2025 Annual Report

PATIENT CARE PATIENT CARE, QUALITY & SAFETY

CHILDREN’S OF ALABAMA’S INTERSTAGE HOME MONITORING PROGRAM GROWING

“We’re getting better at what we do and we’re saving a lot more lives now. That is part of the reason that there are more patients coming into our program.”

As the reputation of the Children’s of Alabama Pediatric and Congenital Heart Center of Alabama has grown, so has the success of its programs. Case in point—Hearts at Home, an interstage home monitoring program for any patient with single ventricle physiology who has undergone their first palliation procedure. In the last five years, the program has seen steady growth in the number of these patients, and leaders say the center’s reputation is among the reasons why. “I think as a heart center in general, we’ve just had an influx of patients,” said Brittney Abercrombie, a nurse practitioner and the coordinator of Hearts at Home. “And so by default, that means that we are having more interstage patients.” When Abercrombie moved into her role five years ago, Hearts at Home was caring for six to eight patients at a time. Now, she says they typically have about 13. Yearly, the program follows as many as 30, compared with 23-25 when she began. In the last couple of years, they’ve attracted more patients from outside Alabama, including children from Georgia, Tennessee and the Pensacola, Florida, area. Some of the program’s patients chose Children’s over other options in the region.

ALAN BROCK, M.D.

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CHILDREN’S OF ALABAMA | UAB MEDICINE