Advanced Heart Failure & Heart Disease

Mission Heart features a comprehensive and innovative Heart Failure Program. Our carefully coordinated care ensures that you receive the latest evidence-based treatments, follow-up care and support you need to prevent complications and maintain optimal heart health.

What is Heart Failure?

Heart failure occurs when the heart can’t pump blood as well as it should. When the body doesn’t receive proper blood flow, it doesn’t receive the amount of oxygen it needs.

Heart failure can’t be cured, but it can be treated. Congestive heart failure (CHF) is a type of heart failure that requires seeking timely medical attention, although sometimes heart failure and CHF are used interchangeably.

Symptoms of heart failure include fatigue, shortness of breath, and coughing. With heart failure, everyday activities and physical activity such as walking, climbing stairs or carrying groceries can become difficult and quality of life can diminish.

Heart Failure Diagnosis

To diagnose heart failure, we review your medical history to see if you’ve previously had a heart attack. We review your current symptoms, perform a physical exam, and check your heart rate. We check for the presence of risk factors, such as high blood pressure, coronary artery disease or diabetes. If needed, we provide lab tests, blood tests, a chest x-ray, and an echocardiogram or an electrocardiogram (ECG).

How We Treat Heart Failure at Mission Heart

After diagnosis, our expert medical staff provides a treatment plan designed to reduce the symptoms and forestall the progress of heart failure. There are a few different treatment options.

Treatment begins with helping you manage risk factors. Addressing weight gain, limiting salt and fat in the diet, abstaining from smoking and alcohol consumption, keeping blood sugar levels in normal ranges and obtaining sufficient amounts of sleep are all factors that minimize the risk of further heart failure.

As part of a treatment plan for heart failure, we also offer devices such as ventricular assist devices, surgical procedures, and medications, ace inhibitors, beta-blockers, heart transplant, and cardiac resynchronization therapy.

People with heart failure can still lead enjoyable lives when the condition is managed with medications and healthy lifestyle changes.

At Mission Heart, we provide top-notch care. Here are some of the key features of heart failure treatments at Mission Heart:

• Continuum of Care: We have a multidisciplinary team approach across the continuum of care, including physicians, advanced practitioners, specially trained nurses, nurse navigators, care managers, pharmacists, dietitians and social workers, among others.
• Guideline Directed Medical Therapy: Our approach encompasses diagnosis, pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic management, interventional medical device therapy and advanced therapies, including mechanical circulatory assist.
• Consistency of Care: We provide effective transitions of care to ensure consistency of care, communication and partnerships between providers, including incorporation of the Heart Failure Disease Management Clinic.
• Results: Patients with primary heart failure diagnosis are five times less likely to be readmitted to the hospital if they are followed post discharge by our Heart Failure Disease Management Clinic.