Heart failure (HF) is one of the leading causes of hospitalisation in New Zealand and around the world. Each admission consumes precious hospital bed days, stretches staff capacity, and often delays treatment for other patients waiting in emergency departments, outpatient clinics, and operating theatres. With populations ageing and the burden of chronic disease increasing, the pressure on hospitals is only set to intensify.

That’s why the recent results from Hawke’s Bay Hospital are so powerful: they demonstrate how a digital-first approach to heart failure management can transform patient care while freeing up significant hospital capacity.

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The challenge of rapid up-titration

Modern heart failure guidelines are clear:patients benefit most when their medications are titrated rapidly and safely to target or maximally tolerated doses. Yet in practice, achieving this is extremely difficult. Frequent in-person visits, clinical monitoring, and hospital admissions during titration consume vast resources and put pressure on patients as well as clinicians.

According to international guidelines, New Zealand’s heart failure workforce is already under-resourced. With too few staff, limited clinic space, and patients dispersed across large geographic areas, it is simply not possible to provide the level of in-person monitoring that best-practice rapid up-titration requires. Remote patient monitoring makes a huge difference.

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A simple but striking comparison

Hawke’s Bay Hospital compared two groups of patients undergoing up-titration: one managed through usual care (the“comparator” group) and the other supported by Spritely’s remote patient monitoring platform.

Not only was there a huge improvement in time to up-titrate, there was a massive reduction in occupied bed nights during up-titration

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The results are striking:

• Bed days per 100 patients: 359  in the comparator group versus just 12 with Spritely.
• Total number of admissions: 83 in  the comparator group compared to 5 with Spritely.
• Average length of stay: 3.13 days versus 1 day.
• Readmission rates: 47% of patients in usual care were readmitted during up-titration, compared to     only 12% with Spritely.

Put simply, patients managed through Spritely occupied 97% fewer hospital bed days during rapid titration.

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Why it matters for patients

Behind every statistic is a person. For heart failure patients, fewer hospitalisations mean less disruption to daily life, less exposure to the risks of hospital stays (such as infections), and greater confidence that their condition is being managed proactively.

Remote monitoring enables clinicians to check vital signs, review symptoms, and adjust treatment in real time. Patients don’t have to wait for the next appointment or face the stress of another admission.Instead, care happens seamlessly in the background, closer to home.

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Why it matters for hospitals

Hospital bed days are one of the scarcest resources in healthcare. Every unnecessary admission blocked a bed that could otherwise be used for a patient awaiting elective surgery, an emergency case inED, or someone requiring specialist cardiology input.

The Hawke’s Bay results show that adopting Spritely isn’t just good for heart failure patients — it’s good for the entire hospital. Fewer admissions mean:

• Reduced ED pressure:     Patients aren’t waiting for beds because fewer HF patients are admitted.
• Freed-up cardiology capacity:     Specialists spend more time on new assessments instead of managing     repeated admissions.
• Optimised theatre throughput: With     fewer cardiac beds blocked, surgical teams can perform more elective     procedures.

The ripple effect of reducing bed days extends across the whole health system.

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Why Spritely works better than just a BP Monitor

Some solutions offer little more than a blood pressure monitor linked to a dashboard. While useful, they provide only fragments of the patient picture and rely heavily on clinicians to sift through data.

Spritely is different. It supports the entire model of care, integrating remote monitoring, symptom tracking, clinical workflows, and communication tools. This allows clinicians to manage titration efficiently, safely, and at scale — reaching more patients with the same workforce.

That’s why Spritely patients are less likely to be readmitted and why their titration progresses faster. It’s not about more data; it’s about better, more efficient care.

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A model that scales

What Hawke’s Bay has achieved isn’t an isolated success — it’s a blueprint. By embedding Spritely into the heart failure pathway, hospitals can deliver measurable improvements in outcomes while releasing capacity back into the system.

The key takeaway is clear: with Spritely, clinicians can support more patients at optimal efficiency, patients stay well at home, and hospitals regain desperately needed capacity.

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The bigger picture

Heart failure is just the beginning. The same principles apply to other chronic conditions where proactive, digital-first management prevents admissions and preserves hospital resources.

The lesson from Hawke’s Bay is not just that digital tools can help — it’s that they must if health systems are to remain sustainable.

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In summary

The Hawke’s Bay data shows that Spritely can reduce occupied hospital bed days during rapid heart failure titration from 359 per 100 patients to just 12. That’s more than a dramatic number — it’s a glimpse of a more efficient, patient-centred future for healthcare.

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