Congestive Heart Failure – An Opportunity for Improved Outcomes
By Dr. Kelly McGrath
Congestive heart failure is a condition where the heart does not effectively pump blood through the body which affects about 6.7 million Americans. This number is expected to grow each year as the US population ages and as some of the conditions that cause heart failure increase in frequency. The negative impact of heart failure is substantial and has an associated cost of about $30.7 billion. It is estimated that by 2030, this number will be as high as $70 billion each year as the total cases rise to 8.7 million. Even more importantly, heart failure is the cause of, or a contributing factor, in about 457,000 deaths in the US each year.
These facts are disheartening if you have a diagnosis of congestive heart failure or care about someone with the condition. The term itself can be frightening as many of us know people who have died from this condition. The good news is that usually with the right medications, specific healthy lifestyle choices and good medical care coordination, most patients can do well with this condition. Although some of these treatments can be complex and costly, quite often they are not. Also, when medical care is coordinated so that it ensures patients get the best treatment plan with the necessary tools to help follow that plan, their outcomes improve.
Not all heart failure conditions are the same. There are two broad categories: One classification where the heart muscle does not have enough power to effectively pump blood to the body and another where the problem is related more to other factors such as the stiffness of the heart muscle. It is important that the correct diagnosis is made so that the treatment matches the specific condition. Often, this is done with an ultrasound of the heart which is called an Echocardiogram.
The impact of congestive heart failure is, like many health conditions, much worse in rural communities such as ours. The overall prevalence of heart failure is also higher in rural populations. This is in part because the conditions that cause heart failure such as coronary artery disease, diabetes, obesity, smoking and high blood pressure, are more common in rural America. The death rate for rural residents with heart failure is worse than our urban counterparts. Also, fewer rural patients are on the recommended treatment programs for heart failure to deliver the best outcomes. While this is frustrating, it highlights some easy opportunities to make things better.
If you have heart failure, the best way to improve your outcome is to partner closely with your primary care provider or cardiologist to create the plan that is right for your specific condition and then stick to that plan. This includes medication, a healthy lifestyle and close self-monitoring of the condition to allow for a quick change in plan if this is needed.
At Clearwater Valley Health, we are dedicated to helping our patients to live their best, healthy lives. To that end, and to specifically improve the outcomes for our rural heart failure patients, we are partnering with the University of Washington School of Medicine and the University of Idaho to develop the best tools and programs for rural-living heart failure patients. If you have heart failure, you can help with this effort; we are currently looking for patients to help us in learning what tools are most effective to manage heart failure. Let your primary care provider at Clearwater Valley Health know if you are interested in contributing to this effort. If you qualify and are willing to participate in a compensated one-hour interview, you can help improve the lives of not only yourself, but the lives of others with this condition.