Heart Failure Program
Whenever a heart failure patient is treated at Sound Heart, a team is already in place to meet the patient's needs. Collaboration and communication among primary care providers, physician specialists and other experienced caregivers are what make the Heart Failure Program work so well.
The Sound Heart Congestive Heart Failure (CHF) program located at Evergreen Hospital Medical Center, provides services that include a team approach of comprehensive care. This starts in the hospital with a standardized set of orders, and specialized patient education, including videos, written materials, and discharge instructions in English and non-English languages. Follow-up phone calls begin three days after discharge by RNs and occur weekly for a month post-discharge. Home services are set up when needed. Appropriate patients are referred for outpatient management of heart failure by a cardiology nurse practitioner at Evergreen's Cardiac Enhancement Center. This comprehensive, chronic disease management model for heart failure improves the quality of life of patients and helps keep them out of the hospital. This program was recently recognized with a 2004 Award of Excellence in Healthcare Quality from Qualis Health*, which recognizes innovations that make measurable improvements in outcomes for patients.
*Qualis is Washington state's quality improvement organization.
The Heart Failure Program helps patients living with a chronic health problem to function at higher levels and to hopefully enjoy life more than in the past. Our goal is to increase patients ability to exercise, decrease the number of re-admissions to the hospital and increase well-being.