Did you know that 50% of heart failure patients are re-hospitalized within 6 months of discharge? In response to this problem, Rush University Medical Center has partnered with John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County, Mount Sinai Medical Center and University of Illinois Medical Center. The National Institutes of Health has funded the Congestive Heart Failure Adherence Redesign Trial (CHART) to figure out how to best help heart failure patients stay healthy and out of the hospital.

CHART hopes to lower the number of days, heart failure patients are in the hospital by providing doctors with more useful patient information.  At the same time, CHART will provide patients with more tools to help them take better care of themselves. The hope is that this multi-level approach of providing both doctors and patients with more treatment tools will lead to better health results. Doctors can better prescribe medications that strengthen the heart and improve the way the body functions. While patients can learn how to best take care of their condition by taking medications as prescribed, weighing themselves daily, going to doctor appointments and eating a low-salt diet. Together, the patient and doctor can work as a team to keep the patient healthy and out of the hospital.​