Heart Failure Clinic

Your physician may refer you to Baptist Health's Congestive Heart Failure Clinic if you have congestive heart failure.

About Congestive Heart Failure

Symptoms of congestive heart failure include:

  • Fatigue.
  • Shortness of breath.
  • Wheezing or coughing.
  • Fluid retention.
  • Weight gain.
  • Appetite loss.
  • Abnormally fast or slow heartbeat.

If you're not sure you have congestive heart failure, talk to your physician.

What You Need to Know

  • We examine your medical condition, assess your needs and develop a plan to help you feel better. Your plan may include medication and lifestyle and dietary changes.
  • Your team includes a cardiologist, nurse practitioner, and pharmacist. Your team meets with you at your first appointment. 
  • The pharmacist will work with the clinic providers to evaluate and optimize your medications for heart failure, as well as discuss how they work, why you are taking them, and any side effects you may experience. Additionally, the pharmacist will work with you to help support your finding affordable medications.
  • You're welcome to bring along a family member or caregiver.
  • Read more about how to ensure your medical care wishes are followed through learning more about advanced care planning. 
View Hide Transcript
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Heart failure is a condition which heart muscle
does not provide enough circulation to the body,

does not deliver enough oxygen and other nutrients.

At the Heart Failure Clinic, we see patients
where we'll discharge from the hospital

after having an admission for heart failure.

When a patient comes to our
clinic, they first are examined,

then we look at their medications and decide what are
the medications that need to be changed or optimized.

There's been lots of studies that have shown that
if you do the titration of their medications,

optimally in a short period of time, their
outcome is better than doing it over longer

period of time.

Secondly, we also do what we
call education of the patient.

Patient needs to understand their condition.

Most patients don't, so we explain
to them what their condition is,

what are the things that they need to do,
what are the things that they should not do,

so that they understand their condition and act on it.

Because if you have buy-in from the patient, then
they are more likely to take their medications.

The most important thing to recognize is heart
failure diagnosis is occurring more and more often.

The prevalence of the disease is going up.

We are going to have a large group of
patients who need specialized care, so,

we are trying to do the best we can to
optimize their care, improve their lifestyle,

and possibly increase their lifespan.

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