Table 3 Patient quote table

PERCEIVED IMPROVED HEALTH STATUS

I had to always constantly go in the hospital… It just – it helped, the program. (LA/NR)

There’s been no shortness of breath or no swelling in my legs – because now I know what to look for when it comes to having congestive heart failure again and I haven’t had any of those symptoms at all for over a year now. (LA/NR)

Exercising more…more walking and less driving a lot times. A lot of times when I always go to the corner store, might be two or three blocks away, I used to drive. Then I decided to walk a lot more instead of driving to the corner store. Doing that will make me feel better and be healthier for me. (LA/WR)

I would – I think I was still working a couple days a week at the time when I enrolled. So if it wasn’t a workday, I would get up in the morning and, in the beginning, I didn’t do too much because I couldn’t really walk up steps.But later on in the program, because I lost a lot of weight and I kept my weight down, I – my sodium level was very good, I had my energy back…. (HA/WR)

DISEASE MANAGEMENT AND ROUTINE

The pill bottle was the biggest asset in the program for me because I would forget to take my medication on a regular basis… the pill bottle every morning at 8 o’clock the buzzer would go off and light up purple and I knew it was time to take my medication. So that put structure in my life as far as taking my medication. (LA/NR)

The program really kept me on the ball as far as taking my medicine, and plus they checking my weight… it made me look forward to it every day.(LA/WR)

… I still weigh myself everyday still. I guess I got into the habit, so it’s kinda hard to break. (H/NR)

I thought it was great, it was very helpful. I mean, it actually reminded me to take the pills. And I would step on the scale, I was more conscious of stepping on the scale…. (HA/WR)

EFFECTIVENESS IN REDUCING RE-HOSPITALIZATIONS

I think it kinda helped me stay out of the hospital because… it would send the messages to my doctor when I gained the weight and they would call me and tell me like take an extra pill, take a half a pill. Whatever to do to try to get the extra water weight… (HA/NR)

I think it prevented me, probably, maybe from lapsing into the bad health. I was in the hospital when I got put on the program. It kept me from going back into that state that I was in, which was a bad state brought on by bad eating, lack of moving, lack of exercise…the program, which got me to maintaining, stabilizing a weight instead of going up or going down on a steady basis down, steady basis up too high. It helped keep me in line, eating the way I should so that I would stay at the weight I was supposed to stay for optimum health with the heart. (HA/R)

It kept me out of the hospital, it kept me a little bit more healthier and it always reminded me when I forgot. (LA/NR)

LOTTERY

It didn’t change how I felt about the program. I was still going to be in it. But it just made it a little bit better… (LA/WR)

… I mean, when you have a condition like mine – when you damn near die, you get kind of scared and you just do what you’re supposed to do to try to take care of yourself. So it was more a case of making sure I did what I was supposed to do as opposed to worrying about whether I was going to get money for it. (HA/WR)

I did get some days that… today I’ve made this much money or whatever. And it was kind of like, yes, I took my medicine yesterday and stepped on the scale. And then it’s like – so it was kind of like a reward for doing that, that way, so it was a nice little thing to see, and it was like, yes, I did what I was supposed to do yesterday and it’s like – and got rewarded for doing so. (HA/WR)

Well, I mean, it was fun. The little monies here and there, the little checks here and there with the lottery was …the little money was on top, but it wasn’t never about the money. It was always about – but I think initially it helped motivate me, those little couple of dollars. But eventually I don’t even think it was about the money, it was about me learning how to adapt to my sickness. (HA/NR)