Press Releases
November 21, 2011
St. Barnabas Hospital’s New Heart Failure Clinic Wants to Keep Patients Out of the Hospital
The high hospital readmission rate of those often chronically ill people who suffer from heart failure impacts adversely on both the cost of health care in this country and the health and well-being of the patients themselves.
Nationally, one of every four heart failure patients is readmitted within 30 days of discharge and as many as 40 percent within six months. At the same time, studies have shown that with proper management readmissions for heart failure patients could be prevented in at least 40 percent of cases.
As a means for keeping people out of the hospital, St. Barnabas Hospital recently opened a Heart Failure Clinic to educate patients on how to better manage their condition.
“Whereas in the past it was felt that heart transplants and other state-of-the-art technologies was the best way to help these patients, today the thinking is to start with the basics by educating and teaching them to make diet and lifestyle changes,” said Dr. William Kalafatic, director of the outpatient clinic. “Rather than have people depend on transplants and other new technology to live a couple of years longer, our thinking is that by teaching them the importance of eating and exercising properly, and taking their medication, we can help people avoid getting to the point where they need a high-tech procedure like this to stay alive.”
Heart Failure
Heart failure, once called congestive heart failure, is when the heart can no longer pump enough blood to the rest of the body. With this often chronic condition, blood may back up in other areas of the body causing fluid buildup in the lungs, liver, GI tract, and arms and legs. This causes a lack of oxygen and nutrition to the organs and extremities, damaging and reducing their ability to work properly.
Coronary artery disease (or CAD), which is a narrowing of the small blood vessels that supply blood and oxygen to the heart, is the most common cause of heart failure. It can also occur due to cardiomyopathy, the causes of which include congenital heart disease, heart attacks or heart valve disease. Diseases like emphysema and severe anemia can also contribute to heart failure.
Symptoms often begin slowly, and may only be apparent when one is active. Over time, symptoms such as shortness of breath, coughing, swelling of the feet and ankles, weight gain, heart palpitations, difficulty sleeping, loss of appetite and fatigue become constant.
St. Barnabas’s Outpatient Service
Approximately 50 patients, the majority of whom are in their 50s and 60s, are presently being seen at the Heart Failure Clinic at St. Barnabas Hospital, with the frequency of their visits determined by the risk of their likely readmission to the hospital. Dr. Kalafatic and his staff oversee a preventive program that includes diet and exercise and other healthy lifestyle changes. Recommended diets include foods low in sodium and salt – which can mean avoiding such staples in some cultures as cured meats, bacon, sausages, ham, cheese and bottled dressings – and such spices as pepper, garlic and lemon instead of salt. They also urge patients to lose weight and, for those who smoke, to quit.
Dr. Kalafatic closely manages the multiple medications that most heart failure patients take. This can include ACE inhibitors to open blood vessels and decrease the workload of the heart, diuretics that help the body eliminate fluid and salt, digitalis glycosides to help the heart muscle contract properly and treat heart rhythm disturbances, angiotensin receptor blockers to eliminate the side effects brought on by the ACE inhibitors, and beta blockers that can improve the heart’s pumping ability.
“Sick patients like these need to be educated and closely monitored,” said Dr. Kalafatic. “We believe that over time this is the best weapon we have to keep them healthy and out of the hospital.”
Howard Matzner/Steven Clark
Andover Communications
(201) 947-4133
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