Heart Failure Treatment & Recovery Center

While this term may be used interchangeably with heart failure, this is technically a more urgent form of the disease. Congestive Heart Failure occurs when blood flow is backed up and slowed to the point of congestion and swelling in the body’s tissue. Oftentimes, this swelling affects the legs and ankles. Congestive heart failure can also cause fluid build-up in the lungs, known as pulmonary edema.

Heart failure is often the result of another underlying condition, like heart valve diseases or coronary artery disease. When these other conditions are left untreated, they may cause permanent damage and eventually cause heart failure. Addressing these other, underlying conditions is often an important part of heart failure care.

A heart failure diagnosis can be stressful and the path to maintaining your condition and improving your quality of life can be complex. After diagnosis, our Heart Failure Center offers each of our patients access to patient navigation.

Our patient navigation team has a clinical background in heart failure and an in-depth understanding of our program, allowing them to provide valuable oversight and information throughout your journey. Your patient navigator works closely with you, your family and your care team to develop a treatment plan to meet your individual needs and answer any questions along the way.

Our cardiac amyloidosis program is the second largest in the state and a unique offering to patients struggling with this rare disease. Cardiac amyloidosis is caused by abnormal proteins called amyloid building up in the tissues of the heart and it affects the heart’s ability to pump blood to the body leading to symptoms of heart failure. This protein can build up in any organ in the body and as such lead to severe life limiting symptoms.

Our specialized clinic can diagnose amyloidosis and develop a specialized multi-disciplinary treatment plan. We utilize the latest imaging technology, genetic testing and state of the art medications to diagnose and treat cardiac amyloidosis. Our physicians participate in cutting-edge research allowing our patients early access to the latest treatments, serve on national committees working to improve amyloidosis awareness and care, actively collaborate with other centers nationwide. Our approach ensures that you have access to leading expertise, right here close to home.

Pulmonary hypertension is a rare disease that results from increased pressure in the blood vessels of the lungs. This places strain on the heart as it tries to pump blood into the lungs and leads to symptoms of heart failure. Pulmonary hypertension can result from drug abuse (eg. meth, cocaine), rheumatologic diseases, excess weight, lung disease, clots in the lungs, liver disease and congenital heart disease. It can also be familial meaning it runs in your family due to genetic changes.

Our pulmonary hypertension clinic offers patients with this complex disease a multidisciplinary approach to diagnosis and treatment. Paired with research and state-of-the-art technology, our clinic ensures that our patients have access to the most recent advancements available in the treatment of pulmonary hypertension, as well as coordination of care with our pulmonary clinic and/or rheumatologists, as needed. If you or your patient has pulmonary hypertension, you can contact our Heart Failure Center for more information about this clinic.

For patients whose hearts are severely weakened or damaged, a ventricular assist device can help the heart pump enough blood. Once surgically implanted, a LVAD provides support for the heart and improves the circulation of blood.

Our highly experienced cardiothoracic surgeons have been performing LVAD surgeries since 2018. Our program consistently provides exceptional surgical outcomes to patients based on national benchmarks, including higher success rates and significantly fewer post-surgical complications.

Our VAD Coordinator will collaborate with a team of experts to assess the ability and need a patient has for a LVAD.

Edema can be an uncomfortable and sometimes dangerous condition that heart failure patients struggle with regularly. Diuresis can be an effective remedy for edema, but it can pose unique health risks itself and patients may need more careful monitoring for diuresis. In many cases, these patients must go back into the hospital for in-patient care, but Georgia Heart Institute offers a unique solution.

Conveniently located at our Gainesville and Braselton hospital campuses, our diuresis clinic provides a safe and effective method for heart failure patients to have excessive fluid removed when it reaches a critical or urgent level without having to be admitted to the hospital.

This technology is used to help monitor heart failure patients when they’re at home. With an implanted sensor, a patient’s fluid build up status can betransmitted directly to their heart failure cardiologist. This ensures their care needs are up to date and continually adjusting to be as effective as possible.

Irregular heartbeat, or arrhythmia, and heart failure can often go hand-in-hand. Georgia Heart Institute brings highly-trained electrophysiologists together with our specialized heart failure team to ensure that all of your needs are met. For some patients, an ICD may be recommended to keep your heart rhythm within a safe range. An ICD can be set to work only when your heart needs them to, or all the time, pacing your heartbeat. Not all heart failure patients require one of these devices.

If you need more advanced care options, Georgia Heart Institute encompasses a comprehensive, multi-disciplinary team where our cardiovascular and thoracic surgeons work closely with our heart failure team to provide excellent care outcomes. With decades of experience, our nationally recognized surgeons can perform a variety of procedures, including valve repairs and replacements, as well as coronary artery bypass grafting.

When patients are admitted to Northeast Georgia Medical Center, the heart failure care team from Georgia Heart Institute is there to help provide interdisciplinary care and assist in recovery.

We also offer a 16-bed unit dedicated solely to supporting for heart failure patients and their families on their path to recovery and stability. The Woody Stewart Heart Failure Unit is second to none. Our inpatient heart failure unit offers highly innovative treatment and monitoring systems, as well as a state-of-the-art education center. The Woody Stewart Heart Failure Unit care team includes a fellowship trained Advanced Heart failure cardiologist, nurse practitioner or physician assistant, nurse navigators, heart failure trained bedside nurse, pharmacist, social worker and case manager ensuring each patient is well taken care of.

Ongoing research and innovation to improve outcomes for heart failure patients is a critical component of our program. The doctors from our Heart Failure Center participate in studies and research that are impacting the outcomes and treatment options for patients with heart failure nationally.