The mission of our Heart Failure Program is to improve the quality of life and reduce the risk of death for patients with congestive heart failure. Heart failure is a disease of epidemic proportion in the United States. In fact, it is currently the leading cause of hospital admission for patients over the age of 65.

The traditional approach of specialized heart failure treatment centers is to focus on patients with end-stage heart failure. These patients are evaluated for cardiac transplant, and are offered adjustments of their standard therapies as well as enrollment in investigational protocols.

However, while this approach is appropriate for patients with end-stage disease, it does not help the vast majority of heart failure patients—those with dysfunction of the left ventricle (the main pumping chamber of the heart) and congestive heart failure. These patients may be relatively asymptomatic, but they are actually at high risk for disease progression and death—frequently sudden death.

That is why the strategy at the Heart Failure Program is to focus on patients within the entire spectrum of this disease, from those with left ventricular dysfunction who are relatively asymptomatic to patients with end-stage disease. With this approach, we hope to improve the long-term outcome of this serious disease.

Our Heart Failure Program is at the leading edge of scientific and clinical developments in congestive heart failure and features services such as:

We have a talented network of physicians, nurses and ancillary health care professionals—all working together to provide the best treatment possible. When a patient is referred to the Heart Failure Program, a physician and a nurse practitioner evaluate the patient, and ancillary support staff is coordinated in order to provide an individualized treatment plan for the patient. All diagnostic and therapeutic decisions will be made jointly with the referring physician, unless the patient requires immediate intervention.