You will be hearing from both of us more over the coming weeks as we participate in this blog. As an introduction, I first wanted to introduce you to our program and to our multidisciplinary team.
We provide care for heart failure patients at all stages of their disease. From initial diagnosis up through advanced therapies, our patient population consists of those with mechanical circulatory support such as Left Ventricular Assist Devices (LVAD), total artificial heart and donor transplanted hearts. It is a tremendously challenging yet rewarding area of medicine to be involved with as the treatments and therapies are ever changing and improving.
To provide the caliber of care our complex patients require takes a skilled and dedicated staff. At the present time we have 3 full time Cardiologists, 9 Nurse Practitioners, and 5 RN nurse coordinators. Additionally we have a financial coordinator to assist patients with their insurance questions and approvals, a full time social worker to assist with patient and their family support, a full time dietician to educate patients on good nutrition and how to obtain and maintain optimal weight, a full time pharmacist to monitor medications and even goes as far as to fill patients pill box when needed to insure that correct medications and doses are taken. There are many other staff members behind the scenes, that patients never have the chance to meet, that contribute to the welfare of all of our patients.