Does Chronic Heart Failure Need a Specialized Program?

Overview

Progressive increase of heart failure (HF) incidence in human population together with itsgrowing age provide a new problem in health care policy in economically advanced countries.Therefore new approaches should be applied in patients with HF.The HF clinics and units led by specialized HF nurses would serve as an example of newintellectual means to HF treatment. The care may be provided either in outpatient clinics(ambulatory care) or as a home care. The specialized nurses (assistant physicians) teach thepatients to modify their life-style, to eliminate the risk factors, and provide them by thenecessary psychological support. More frequent medical check-ups and early modifications ofdrug treatment may improve the patients quality of life, decrease the number of readmissionsto hospital and prolong their lifes finally.As this topic seems almost unknown within the Czech medical literature,we present the reviewof world knowledges in this field together with our own pilot experiences with HF clinic in ourinstitution.

Key words:
heart failure – ambulatory care – home care – specialized nurses.