Heart Failure

Faith Regional’s CardioVascular Institute offers services to prevent and treat heart failure. Our goal is to work with you to help you manage your condition before it leads to more serious complications. We offer a proactive, multidisciplinary team approach to preventing and treating heart failure. Our goal is to have our heart failure patients meet with multiple health professionals who can help them live comfortably with their disease all on the same day and location. These services include: 

• Patient and family education
• Medication review and instruction by a registered pharmacist
• Dietary consultation with a registered dietician
• Activity/exercise instruction
• Referrals to support services

Heart Failure, also known as congestive heart failure, is a condition in which the heart cannot pump enough blood to meet the needs of your other organs.

Signs and symptoms of heart failure include:

• Chronic Lack of Energy
• Cough with Frothy Sputum
• Confusion and/or Impaired Memory
• Difficulty Sleeping at Night due to Breathing Problems
• Increased Urination at Night
• Shortness of Breath
• Swelling of Feet and Legs
• Swollen or Tender Abdomen with Loss of Appetite

When diagnosing heart failure, your physician will review your complete medical history and perform a physical exam. In addition, other diagnostic procedures that may be used include:

• Chest X-Ray
• Echocardiogram
• Electrocardiogram
• BNP Testing

Treatment for your heart failure will depend on a number of factors that your physician will review and discuss with you. Many times the cause of heart failure will establish treatment protocol. Your treatment may include:

• Lifestyle changes
• Medication
• Biventricular pacing/cardiac resynchronization therapy
• Implantable cardioverter defibrillator
• Heart transplantation
• Ventricular Assist Devices