St. Joseph Medical Center Heart Failure Clinic
The St. Joseph Heart Failure Clinic at St. Joseph Medical Center now provides comprehensive outpatient care that will help people with heart failure enjoy improved quality of life.
Heart failure is any weakening of the heart muscle that causes it to pump less effectively. This leaves patients feeling tired, short of breath or weak. While there's no "cure" for heart failure, early diagnosis and treatment can significantly slow the progression of the disease. Through aggressive treatment and comprehensive education, clinic staff help heart failure patients reduce their symptoms and lead more active lives.
Heart Failure can be managed
No one likes to hear the diagnosis "heart failure," but don't let the words scare you. Heart failure does not mean that the heart has stopped working. What it does mean is that the heart is not pumping blood effectively through the body.
Heart failure can result from a heart attack, high blood pressure or high cholesterol, damaged heart valves, diabetes, obesity or simply advancing age. The symptoms of heart failure may be activity-limiting fatigue, chest congestion, swelling of the ankles and shortness of breath. If you have heart failure, you may have all, some, or none of these symptoms depending on the severity of your condition.
Partners in your health
The staff at St. Joseph Heart Failure Clinic will create and help implement an individualized treatment plan developed just for you. This may mean coordinating diagnostic tests to better evaluate your condition, adjusting medications to ensure you get the most benefit with the least side effect, and providing you an educational program to help you manage your disease. The clinic is unique, not only in the amount of time spent with patients, but in the follow up attention that patients receive.
Keys to success - education and follow up
Ensuring your optimum health requires skillful management of the medications that help control symptoms and disease progression. It also means getting you involved in making lifestyle changes that will make it easier for your heart to do its job. In order to do this, clinic staff will schedule regular visits with you to monitor your progress. Sometimes you will need to come back into the heart clinic; other times, you may get a follow up telephone call. By working closely with you, your nurse case manager can help provide, not only the information, but also the inspiration to help you live better.
Take charge of your heart health
The important thing to remember about heart failure is that you can make a big difference in how you feel, but you need to start now. Protect your heart and your health by monitoring your weight, exercising appropriately, avoiding tobacco and alcohol, eating right, managing stress and taking the right medications at the right time. At St. Joseph Heart Failure Clinic, we can help you regain control of your heart health.
You can reach the St. Joseph Heart Failure Clinic by calling 253-426-4972.
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