Staying Out of the Hospital

Pictured at right is Frank Giza, of St. Augustine, a patient at Baptist Medical Center's Congestive Heart Failure Clinic, and, standing behind him, from left to right, are Paul Farrell, MD, the clinic's medical director; Claire Perrien, RN, the clinic's full-time nurse; and Bonnie Heffernan, RN, BSN, the clinic's nurse manager.

Living with congestive heart failure, or CHF, isn't easy, says Frank Giza, 74, of St. Augustine, but it's gotten more manageable for him since he started receiving treatments at Baptist Medical Center's Congestive Heart Failure Clinic.

Giza is one of about 4.8 million Americans who have CHF, according to the National Institutes of Health. CHF is a condition that is marked by the heart's inability to pump enough blood to meet the body's needs. It is the No. 1 cause nationally of hospital admissions for people over age 65, and its symptoms include shortness of breath; swelling in the ankles, legs or abdomen; fatigue; and/or restlessness.

But, unlike many others with CHF, Giza has been able to manage his disease without being hospitalized recently. In fact, he hasn't been hospitalized since he began his treatments at the CHF clinic about 2 1/2 years ago. It's a benefit that makes it much easier for him to make the drive from St. Augustine to Jacksonville every month.

"I had to get hospitalized about every six months or so [before coming to the CHF clinic] to get the fluid out of my lungs," Giza said. "As you can imagine, it's not a very pleasant experience. Now, I come here every month or so, it takes about a day for the medicine to kick in, and I do pretty well for about three weeks. I golf two times a week and go bowling once a week, so I'm fairly active."

Giza's ability to resume his normal activities is exactly the kind of outcome that the CHF Clinic aims to provide its patients, explains Paul Farrell, MD, the clinic's Medical Director.

"Short of a heart transplant, there really is no way to cure CHF, and it's very difficult to get a heart transplant, especially for CHF patients," Farrell said. "So, what we try to do is improve our patients' quality of life and keep them from being hospitalized. In addition to being less stressful, the treatment here is much less expensive [compared to being hospitalized]."

Patients typically come to the clinic every two weeks or four weeks for intravenous treatments, which last five-to-six hours a day. The medications strengthen the heart muscle's contractions and, in turn, increase a patient's energy level.

Claire Perrien, RN, Baptist's CHF nurse, plays a vital role in the clinic's efforts to help patients. In addition to providing infusion therapy, Perrien serves as an educational resource to patients, performing rounds during the clinic's off-duty hours. She has 18 years of nursing experience, which includes 14 years specializing in infusion therapy. She joined Baptist in March, and her presence is part of a larger effort to expand the clinic's services, says Bonnie Heffernan, Nurse Manager of the CHF Clinic.

In addition to having a new, full-time nurse, the CHF Clinic also has a new, larger location. It was housed formerly in Baptist Medical Center's Ambulatory Surgery Unit, but it has relocated to the hospital's 1 Southeast floor. It now has two treatment rooms, which are providing benefits to both patients and staff.

"Our new location has given us more flexibility with patient scheduling. It also gives our patients a little more privacy, and it allows us to grow," said Heffernan, who has been with Baptist since 1993 and is also the Nurse Manager of the Progressive Cardiac/Medical Unit.

Statistics indicate that an increasing number of hospitalizations will occur due to CHF, but Heffernan and the rest of the clinic's staff want to do what they can to provide people with CHF a better quality of life. Heffernan and Perrien are organizing a campaign to create more awareness about the clinic. She can be reached at (904) 202-1390.

"I'm very excited about the opportunities we're creating with the CHF clinic's new location and the addition of Claire," said Sandy Schellhorn, Director of Nursing for Cardiovascular Services. "They are part of what makes our cardiovascular program the most comprehensive program in the area, with services that cover all age ranges, from children to seniors."

For online information about CHF, check the following Web sites:

• The American Heart Association's Web site. The Heart Association also has information here.
• Heart Failure Society of America
• The National Library of Medicine has a list of heart failure links.