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Cardiac Rehabilitation
Congestive Heart Failure Program

What is Congestive Heart Failure?
Congestive Heart Failure (CHF) is a disorder in which the heart does not pump blood properly. This can occur on both sides of the heart and can result in blood backing up into other areas of the body. Those areas most frequently effected include the liver, gastrointestinal tract, the extremities (arms and legs) or the lungs. CHF can be caused by a variety of conditions such as hypertension (high blood pressure), heart valve disease
or other heart diseases.

The diagnosis of congestive heart disease can be very serious if not effectively controlled. That's why the Cardiac Rehabilitation staff at North Oaks is committed to providing an educational program for Congestive Heart Failure patients. For patients admitted to the hospital with a primary diagnosis of CHF, or if a working diagnosis becomes CHF, participation in this program continues to be provided at no cost.

Program Objective:

• Reduce Average Length Of Stay (ALOS) by one day
• Reduce readmission rate
• Improve quality of life.

Program Components:

Inpatient Education
Patients are taught to monitor the following six key elements daily:

• Edema
• Fatigue level
• Shortness of breath
• Weight gain within one to three days (3-5 lbs.)
• Fluid intake (limited to 2L daily)
• Sodium intake (limited to 2g daily).

Outpatient Options

• North Oaks Home Health (Staff trained through a CHF education inservice by Cardiac Rehabilitation professionals)
• Patients not meeting home health criteria are monitored by phone for a two month period of time by the cardiac rehabilitation staff.

Program Progress Update:

• After one full year of implementation, 285 patients completed the CHF Program.
• Readmission Rates Decreased by 48.695%
• No readmissions within 72 hours
• ALOS Decreased by 2 days

Got a question about rehabilitation? Ask an expert! E-mail your question to the address below, and one of our staff members will reply within 24 hours.

rehabsvs@northoaks.org