If you have heart failure, you're not alone: More than 6 million Americans live with this disease. Specialists at The Heart Group of Lancaster General Health are nationally recognized for their expertise treating all stages of heart failure.
At our Heart Failure Clinic, you receive comprehensive heart failure treatment tailored to your specific needs. We're committed to providing you with education and compassionate support, so together we can better manage your condition and maintain a good quality of life.
What Is Heart Failure?
Heart failure happens when the heart muscle doesn't pump enough blood to meet the body’s needs. The heart has to work harder than normal, so it beats faster and may become enlarged. Heart failure typically develops as a result of other health conditions and/or unhealthy behaviors.
There are several types of heart failure:
- Left-sided heart failure means your heart does not properly fill with blood or cannot pump blood well to the body.
- Right-sided heart failure means your heart cannot pump blood sufficiently to the lungs.
- Congestive heart failure (CHF) means slow blood flow causes blood to back up and fluid and salt to collect in your lungs and other organs.
- High-output heart failure means your heart cannot keep up when your body needs extra blood.
Heart failure symptoms include fatigue, shortness of breath or swelling, and usually gets worse over time. In some cases, it can cause sudden heart failure, which is an emergency condition. It can also lead to serious health issues such as:
What Are the Stages of Heart Failure?
Doctors classify heart failure based on how severe your symptoms are when you're doing ordinary activities. These include activities like short walks, gardening or house cleaning.
You may have:
- Class I Heart Failure: Activity is not limited and heart failure causes you few or no symptoms.
- Class II Heart Failure: Activity may be limited and you may have symptoms such as fatigue, heart palpitations, chest pain or difficulty breathing.
- Class III Heart Failure: You experience symptoms even when your activity level is less than ordinary.
- Class IV Heart Failure: Symptoms occur whenever you're active and may also occur at rest, but they do improve with treatment.
Heart Failure: The Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health Advantage
Dedicated specialists at our Heart Failure Clinic provide advanced care for all types of heart failure. When you come to us, you can count on:
- Leading expertise: Your team includes doctors from The Heart Group of Lancaster General Health who are board-certified and completed fellowship training in some of the nation’s leading academic medical centers. People come to us for training in this specialty from top medical centers nationwide. All our physicians have heart transplant experience, and meet regularly with experts at Penn Medicine's transplant team in Philadelphia to plan and coordinate care for advanced heart failure patients.
- Excellent outcomes: Thorough and effective heart failure care aims to keep you out of the hospital. We're proud to be nationally recognized for having one of the lowest hospital readmission rates for heart failure in the nation.
- One of the only hybrid ORs in the region: Our interventional cardiologists and surgeons operate together in a state-of-the-art hybrid operating room (OR) at Lancaster General Hospital. Hybrid ORs have the technology and equipment to perform minimally invasive and open-heart surgeries at the same time. When needed, we perform high-risk heart surgery for heart failure, with post-surgery mechanical support to ensure a smooth recovery.
- Access to specialized care: Heart failure is most often caused by other conditions. Our unique set of 18 cardiology subspecialty clinics lets us identify and treat heart issues, including heart failure and all of its complexities, so you get comprehensive care. You get access to every possible heart imaging and test tool. Our clinics also provide the full gamut of mechanical circulatory support options, including VAD/LVADs and ECMO, for people with advanced heart failure.
- Patient- and family-focused education: We offer the expertise of a leading academic medical center with a personal touch. Our staff gets to know you and your family and focuses on empowering you to understand and manage heart failure. We help you understand your insurance coverage, make lifestyle changes and get to follow-up appointments. We want you to leave the hospital as healthy as possible and stay that way.
- Advanced research: As part of a leading academic medical center, we participate in clinical trials and research designed to advance diagnosis and treatment of heart failure. This involvement means you have access to the latest treatments before they’re widely available.
Your Heart Failure Treatment Team
Heart failure care requires a broad network of specialists to provide care from diagnosis to treatment and beyond. Our team includes experts in:
Heart Failure Treatments We Offer
Heart Failure treatment focuses on improving your heart function so you can remain active.
Our specialists typically start with the least invasive treatment method that’s appropriate for you. We often use diuretics (water pills) to reduce excess fluid in your body, along with a diet that restricts salt (sodium) intake. Your team may recommend:
Lifestyle Changes
We help you make lifestyle adjustments to improve symptoms and how your heart works. Our skilled and compassionate specialists work with you to:
- Bring regular exercise into your routine
- Change unhealthy behaviors, such as smoking tobacco
- Learn more about heart failure and how to manage it
- Make heart-healthy dietary changes
- Stay on top of medications and follow-up appointments
Medications
Depending on your needs, we may recommend drugs to:
- Keep stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol from making your heart failure worse
- Lower swelling (inflammation)
- Reduce your risk of blood clots
- Relax and open your blood vessels to increase blood flow
- Restore a normal heartbeat
- Slow your heart rate
Surgical Procedures
If you have very poor heart function, we may recommend certain procedures:
- Implantable devices such as a pacemaker or implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) to restore your heart rate or rhythm to normal
- Heart transplant to replace a failing heart with a healthy donor heart if you have hereditary or wild-type cardiac TTR amyloidosis
Specialized Heart Failure Services
At our Heart Failure Clinic, you find a range of services to treat all aspects of heart failure, its causes and complications. Your team works closely together with your primary care physician or cardiologist and specialists across The Heart Group so you receive coordinated care.
With us, you access:
Cardiac Amyloidosis Treatment
Cardiac amyloidosis develops when abnormal proteins (amyloids) build up in your heart tissue. We work with you to develop an effective plan for cardiac amyloidosis treatment to reduce your symptoms and slow or stop the disease from progressing. With proper diagnosis, cardiac amyloidosis can usually be treated and sometimes cured.
Cardiac Biopsy
A cardiac biopsy (heart biopsy) is a minimally invasive procedure we use to detect heart problems by removing a small piece of tissue from your heart muscle.
CardioMEMS
Heart failure can be a challenging condition to manage. Experienced specialists at our nationally recognized CardioMEMS program can help you detect heart problems early—even if you don't have symptoms—with an implanted device that monitors your heart remotely.
Diuretic Clinic
Heart congestion (fluid buildup in your heart) is a common cause of hospitalization for people with heart failure. Treatment typically involves diuretics (also called water pills), which help your body get rid of the excess fluid. Treatment at our outpatient Diuretic Clinic is effective and allows you to go home the same day.
Pulmonary Hypertension Clinic
Pulmonary hypertension (high blood pressure in your lung's arteries) is a rare, life-threatening disease that causes high blood pressure in your lungs. At our Pulmonary Hypertension Clinic you get an accurate diagnosis and advanced treatment options.
Contact Us
To schedule a consultation at the Heart Failure Clinic, call 717-544-8300.