Sai Oh, MD
Medical Director
VitalStim® Therapy has the potential for lowering health care costs, particularly those involved in caring for patients in nursing homes.
While we have seen that VitalStim Therapy has the potential to help patients who have swallowing difficulties, I believe that the therapy has positive economic impact as well.
VitalStim Therapy also has the potential for lowering health care costs, particularly those involved in caring for patients in institutions such as nursing homes.
A patient who is on a PEG tube has to use a special formula. Feeding through the tube has to be supervised by a nurse. The site of the tube has to be cleaned every day to make sure there are no infections. If a patient has limited swallowing capabilities and is part of a swallowing group at mealtime, a Speech Pathologist has to be present to supervise. The costs are even higher when there are other conditions associated with the dysphagia, including renal and pulmonary conditions.
I have not studied the cost of all the medical services associated with dysphagia, but according to an article in the Journal of the American Geriatric Society in 2001, the average cost for maintaining older patients with PEG in a defined community was $7,488 in 1997 and 1998 while the average daily cost of PEG feeding was $87.21. Since then, of course, health care costs have gone even higher.
I used to visit nursing homes where I would see patients on PEG tubes for a long time, never given a chance to try swallowing on their own. If they were to be evaluated and given the chance to benefit from VitalStim Therapy, they would have a better quality of life and the health care system could save money.
At HealthSouth we have seen that dysphagia patients can clearly benefit when treated with VitalStim Therapy.
Patients who are treated with conventional therapy such as thermal stimulation or who are taught compensations, such as a chin tuck, when swallowing will, after a time, manage to swallow. But from what I have observed, recovery from swallowing problems is much faster when patients are treated with VitalStim Therapy.
We treated five patients who were on PEG tubes because they could not take anything by mouth without risking that they would aspire food and develop pneumonia. All five were off their PEG tubes and were feeding by mouth when they left us.
Patients who were not on PEG tubes, but had swallowing difficulties benefited from VitalStim Therapy as well. Some advanced from mechanical soft food to regular diet, some who could not tolerate any solids moved to mechanically soft food. Others who could not tolerate any liquids moved from honey-texture liquids to nectar liquids and eventually to thin liquids.
This therapy will benefit patients - stroke patients, patients with neurological disorders, patients with brain injuries and high quadriplegic injury patients.
We have to spread the word to the medical community.