Heart failure is a chronic condition in which the heart cannot pump blood and oxygen effectively enough to support other organs and meet the body’s needs. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), heart failure affects more than six million Americans.
Heart failure is marked by symptoms that may include:
- Shortness of breath during daily activities.
- Trouble breathing when lying down.
- Weight gain, with swelling in the feet, legs, ankles, or abdomen.
- Feeling generally tired or weak.
For an estimated 10% of Americans, symptoms are more severe, and the disease is more advanced, requiring a highly specialized, multidisciplinary approach to care.
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Lee Health recently celebrated the grand opening of the Advanced Heart Failure Clinic at the Lee Health Heart Institute. This clinic is a true differentiator for our program, enabling our teams to deliver next-generation, highly specialized, personalized care—close to home, where patients and their families want and deserve to receive it.
The clinic offers advanced therapies that previously required patients to travel to specialized centers outside our region. Care is now available right here in Southwest Florida, including infusion of inotropes; care for recipients of left-ventricular assist devices and heart transplants; and treatment for rare cardiac conditions such as cardiac amyloidosis, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, and cardiac sarcoidosis. Remote monitoring of implantable devices, along with collaboration through virtual remote-monitoring programs, will help manage patients safely at home.
The multidisciplinary team includes heart failure providers, nurses, and pharmacists and will soon expand to include a social worker, nutritionist, and palliative care physician. This level of expertise and continuity of care rarely exists outside major metropolitan hospitals.
In addition to the Advanced Heart Failure Clinic, the new 27-bed Advanced Heart Failure Unit supports a streamlined, systematic transition of care from the inpatient to outpatient setting. This includes multidisciplinary discharge planning; visits to the heart failure transitions clinic; outpatient heart failure appointments; cardiac rehabilitation; and remote patient monitoring. Education for patients and caregivers is a critical component of this integrated approach.
We are proud to bring this level of cardiac care to our community. The Advanced Heart Failure teams in both the clinic and hospital unit are elevating care and outcomes for patients with advanced heart failure while strengthening access to specialized cardiac services across our region.
Larry Antonucci, M.D., MBA is the president & CEO of Lee Health, Southwest Florida’s major destination for health care offering acute care, emergency care, rehabilitation and diagnostic services, health and wellness education, and community outreach and advocacy programs. Visit LeeHealth.org to learn more.
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