Establishing a Heart Failure Program


Book Description

". . . every critical examination of HF therapy in the United States has documented that we are not using all the weapons in our arsenal. We know what works, yet we are not systematically applying these proven therapies." —from the Introduction If you are interested in a better way to treat heart failure, this book is for you. Dr. Michael McIvor – who has taught thousands of healthcare professionals how to effectively care for patients with chronic HF through CME symposia – takes a logical, step-by-step approach to setting up and operating the kind of program that reduces hospital admissions and improves patient care. Establishing a Heart Failure Program: The Essential Guide answers the different questions posed by physicians, nurse practitioners, nurses, and hospital administrators, all of whom need to work as a team to achieve success. The three major sections of the book address: Taking the first steps toward building your heart failure program - developing a business plan, choosing your model of care, and making accurate financial projections Assembling the pieces of your program – managers, front line staff, and the physical facility Day-to-day operations A companion website presents forms you can download and use in your own heart failure center. Drawing from experience, Dr. McIvor helps you avoid common problems by identifying potential problems and sharing advice that has proven effective to your colleagues. He gives you the essential tools – unavailable elsewhere – to set up and maintain a heart failure program that achieves superior clinical outcomes.




Acute Heart Failure


Book Description

For many years, there has been a great deal of work done on chronic congestive heart failure while acute heart failure has been considered a difficult to handle and hopeless syndrome. However, in recent years acute heart failure has become a growing area of study and this is the first book to cover extensively the diagnosis and management of this complex condition. The book reflects the considerable amounts of new data reported and many new concepts which have been proposed in the last 3-4 years looking at the epidemiology, diagnostic and treatment of acute heart failure.




Management of Acute Decompensated Heart Failure


Book Description

Although the majority of heart failure represents the exacerbation of chronic disease, about 20% will present as a first time diagnosis. And although there are a number of intravenous agents that can be used for acute decompensated heart failure, there are no national guidelines currently available. Edited by a well-known expert and his team of con




Best Care at Lower Cost


Book Description

America's health care system has become too complex and costly to continue business as usual. Best Care at Lower Cost explains that inefficiencies, an overwhelming amount of data, and other economic and quality barriers hinder progress in improving health and threaten the nation's economic stability and global competitiveness. According to this report, the knowledge and tools exist to put the health system on the right course to achieve continuous improvement and better quality care at a lower cost. The costs of the system's current inefficiency underscore the urgent need for a systemwide transformation. About 30 percent of health spending in 2009-roughly $750 billion-was wasted on unnecessary services, excessive administrative costs, fraud, and other problems. Moreover, inefficiencies cause needless suffering. By one estimate, roughly 75,000 deaths might have been averted in 2005 if every state had delivered care at the quality level of the best performing state. This report states that the way health care providers currently train, practice, and learn new information cannot keep pace with the flood of research discoveries and technological advances. About 75 million Americans have more than one chronic condition, requiring coordination among multiple specialists and therapies, which can increase the potential for miscommunication, misdiagnosis, potentially conflicting interventions, and dangerous drug interactions. Best Care at Lower Cost emphasizes that a better use of data is a critical element of a continuously improving health system, such as mobile technologies and electronic health records that offer significant potential to capture and share health data better. In order for this to occur, the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, IT developers, and standard-setting organizations should ensure that these systems are robust and interoperable. Clinicians and care organizations should fully adopt these technologies, and patients should be encouraged to use tools, such as personal health information portals, to actively engage in their care. This book is a call to action that will guide health care providers; administrators; caregivers; policy makers; health professionals; federal, state, and local government agencies; private and public health organizations; and educational institutions.




Disease Control Priorities, Third Edition (Volume 5)


Book Description

Cardiovascular, respiratory, and related conditions cause more than 40 percent of all deaths globally, and their substantial burden is rising, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Their burden extends well beyond health effects to include significant economic and societal consequences. Most of these conditions are related, share risk factors, and have common control measures at the clinical, population, and policy levels. Lives can be extended and improved when these diseases are prevented, detected, and managed. This volume summarizes current knowledge and presents evidence-based interventions that are effective, cost-effective, and scalable in LMICs.




Improving Outcomes in Heart Failure


Book Description

Recent advances have changed the way heart failure is treated and have resulted in substantial improvements in heart failure management. Improving Outcomes in Heart Failure addresses innovative ways of dealing with issues such as quality of life, treatment compliance, effective patient and family education and counseling, nonpharmacologic therapy, and new health care delivery models for improving the management of heart failure. With an interdisciplinary approach, this reference shows how heart failure outcomes and health care resource utilization can be improved significantly. Written by the editors of the distinguished Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing, Debra K. Moser, DNSc, RN and Barbara Riegel, DNSc, RN, CS, FAAN are well-known and nationally recognized experts in the field of cardiovascular nursing. Moser and Riegel have received numerous prestigious awards and honors and have contributed to many renowned journals on a wide variety of cardiovascular topics.




Heart Failure Management


Book Description

The 19 chapters which comprise this text cover all aspects of heart failure, and are extremely readable and well-organized. The references selected for each chapter are highly sufficient and there is excellent coverage of all the pharmaceutical treatments, which have proven effective in the management of heart failure; moreover, there are chapters on the non-pharmacological management as well. The book instructs the physician in how to use the newer drugs, either singly or in combination and the clinical trials chapter gives the reader a balanced view of what is happening in research.




Health Promotion in Health Care – Vital Theories and Research


Book Description

This open access textbook represents a vital contribution to global health education, offering insights into health promotion as part of patient care for bachelor’s and master’s students in health care (nurses, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, radiotherapists, social care workers etc.) as well as health care professionals, and providing an overview of the field of health science and health promotion for PhD students and researchers. Written by leading experts from seven countries in Europe, America, Africa and Asia, it first discusses the theory of health promotion and vital concepts. It then presents updated evidence-based health promotion approaches in different populations (people with chronic diseases, cancer, heart failure, dementia, mental disorders, long-term ICU patients, elderly individuals, families with newborn babies, palliative care patients) and examines different health promotion approaches integrated into primary care services. This edited scientific anthology provides much-needed knowledge, translating research into guidelines for practice. Today’s medical approaches are highly developed; however, patients are human beings with a wholeness of body-mind-spirit. As such, providing high-quality and effective health care requires a holistic physical-psychological-social-spiritual model of health care is required. A great number of patients, both in hospitals and in primary health care, suffer from the lack of a holistic oriented health approach: Their condition is treated, but they feel scared, helpless and lonely. Health promotion focuses on improving people’s health in spite of illnesses. Accordingly, health care that supports/promotes patients’ health by identifying their health resources will result in better patient outcomes: shorter hospital stays, less re-hospitalization, being better able to cope at home and improved well-being, which in turn lead to lower health-care costs. This scientific anthology is the first of its kind, in that it connects health promotion with the salutogenic theory of health throughout the chapters. the authors here expand the understanding of health promotion beyond health protection and disease prevention. The book focuses on describing and explaining salutogenesis as an umbrella concept, not only as the key concept of sense of coherence.




The Artificial Heart


Book Description

A significant medical event is expected in 1992: the first human use of a fully implantable, long-term cardiac assist device. This timely volume reviews the artificial heart program-and in particular, the National Institutes of Health's major investment-raising important questions. The volume includes: Consideration of the artificial heart versus heart transplantation and other approaches to treating end-stage heart disease, keeping in mind the different outcomes and costs of these treatments. A look at human issues, including the number of people who may require the artificial heart, patient quality of life, and other ethical and societal questions. Examination of how this technology's use can be targeted most appropriately. Attention to achieving access to this technology for all those who can benefit from it. The committee also offers three mechanisms to aid in allocating research and development funds.




Improving Outcomes in Chronic Heart Failure


Book Description

Heart failure is a condition that often results in chronic tiredness and shortness of breath. It also requires complex nursing and medical treatment, especially after a hospital admission, which is all too frequent for persons with heart failure. This book describes and discusses the latest research concerning the benefits of having specially trained nurses manage the care of patients with heart failure after they have been discharged from hospital to their own home. Leading nurses and doctors from around the world discuss their experiences with this type of innovative and effective care program. Building upon these experiences, the book also contains a practical guide to developing this type of care program into a fully functional service that provides quality care to those patients admitted to hospital with heart failure.