SSM Health, AHA partner to impact life for patients with heart failure

SSM Health is pleased to announce participation in IMPLEMENT-HF, a new initiative from the American Heart Association to improve the lives of people living with heart failure (HF).

SSM Health St. Joseph Hospital - Lake Saint Louis is home to the first outpatient clinic in the country to join IMPLEMENT-HF, which is a collaboration featuring multiple inpatient and outpatient health care settings across seven communities nationwide. Additionally, all SSM Health St. Louis adult hospitals are participating in the IMPLEMENT-HF inpatient initiative.

“Participating in the IMPLEMENT-HF quality initiative across all SSM Health St. Louis adult hospitals, as well as enrolling the first outpatient clinic, is a great opportunity to assess our performance in managing patients with heart failure,” said Dr. Georges Chahoud, regional director of the SSM Health heart failure clinical program and director of cardiology services at St. Joseph Hospital - Lake Saint Louis. “It showcases our commitment to delivering quality care to our patients”.

Convened by the American Heart Association – the leading voluntary health organization devoted to a world of longer, healthier lives for all – participating health care organizations are working toward a shared goal of achieving optimal care for patients with heart failure, while improving their quality of life at home and reducing death from the disease.

Through IMPLEMENT-HF, the American Heart Association is engaging with the Mended Hearts Welcome Home program to provide resources and emotional support to patients with Heart Failure through the collaborating health care settings. Welcome Home is a peer-support program for people affected by cardiovascular disease. It supports patients who have been hospitalized with HF, with their recovery and transition back to life at home, while helping improve their quality of life and reduce the chance of hospital readmission.

According to the most recent data from the American Heart Association, nearly 6.2 million U.S. adults are now living with HF.

“We are excited to officially enroll SSM Health Heart & Vascular Care at Lake Saint Louis in IMPLEMENT-HF and pilot the first outpatient registry program in the country,” said Rodney Reider, Interim President of SSM Health St. Joseph Hospital - Lake Saint Louis. “This is a credit to the exceptional work and collaboration of our cardiovascular clinical program and heart failure subcommittee. We anticipate it will be a highly successful program that will prove invaluable to improving the care we provide our cardiology patients in the outpatient setting.”

Despite the name, HF doesn’t mean that the heart has stopped working, but that it labors to pump blood and oxygen throughout the body. When the heart doesn’t pump blood properly, fluid may build up in the body, and organs may not get the blood they need to function. Over time, symptoms of heart failure may develop to include:

• shortness of breath
• tiredness from doing simple daily tasks
• prolonged coughing
• swelling in the feet, ankles, legs or belly, and
• rapid heartbeat

While there's no cure for HF, people with the disease can live a quality life by working with their doctor and the entire health care team on a healthy lifestyle plan, which includes taking prescribed medications, monitoring and reporting HF symptoms, staying active, maintaining an ideal weight and eathing healthfully.

Resources to support the goals of IMPLEMENT-HF are made possible with funding through the American Heart Association’s national IMPLEMENT-HF initiative, supported generously by founding sponsor Novartis and national sponsor Boehringer Ingelheim and Eli Lilly and Company. 

Quality improvement programs like IMPLEMENT-HF can help healthcare professionals apply the latest care guidelines, with the hope of achieving better health outcomes for those patients impacted with the condition.

For more information, please visit www.heart.org/HF  or https://www.ssmhealth.com/heart-vascular-health.