Center turning heart failure into success.

Byline: Tim Christie The Register-Guard

Doctors have gotten better at treating heart attacks, artery blockages and strokes, but congestive heart failure remains a growing, costly problem.

The number of deaths attributed to heart failure has nearly doubled since 1979, Eugene cardiologist Jerold Hawn said, and some 550,000 new cases of heart failure are diagnosed each year in the United States. It's estimated 5 million Americans are living with heart failure, including 10 percent of people over age 75.

That's why PeaceHealth has opened the Heart Failure Center next to Sacred Heart Medical Center. The new clinic is intended to help heart failure patients better manage their disease through improved drug treatment, diet, education and support. The result should be fewer visits to the hospital and improved quality of life.

The center, which began seeing patients last month and had its official opening Tuesday, is part of a growing trend of specialized heart failure centers, based on studies that show they reduce hospitalizations, though not necessarily death.

The Eugene Heart Failure Center uses a team approach to care, led by Hawn, the medical director, who establishes the treatment guidelines and protocols, based on the best available medical evidence. Suzy Webber, a nurse-practitioner special- izing in cardiovascular care, and other specially trained staff members including a dietician closely monitor patients' care, instructing them on diet, medicine and exercise, and offering counseling and education.

"Patient education is our biggest benefit," Webber said.

Studies show that the team approach is more effective in treating heart failure than care provided by primary care physicians, Hawn said.

A 1997 study published in the journal Circulation found that a heart failure management program reduced hospitalizations by more than half, from 210 the year before the program was instituted to 104 in the first year of the program.

Heart failure is the term cardiologists use to describe a heart that's still working, but not very well, no longer able to pump blood efficiently or effectively. As a result, sufferers become easily fatigued, short of breath and they retain fluid and salt in their bodies.

"Heart failure is the response of the heart to a variety of insults," Hawn said.

Heart failure can be caused by a variety of problems, including leaky or infected heart valves, high blood pressure, alcohol abuse and simple wear and tear.

The result is death and illness. About 50 percent of heart failure patients die within five years of their diagnosis, Hawn said. Many patients make repeated visits to the hospital.

"We're trying to break that cycle," he said.

Heart failure can be treated with specialized medicine, replacement or repair of heart valves, and angioplasty or bypass surgery, but there is no cure.

"We can't make the damage go away, but we can make it less prominent," Hawn said.

The center provides more focused care than can be provided by a primary care physician, who may not have the time or expertise to help a patient manage the disease.

After a patient is referred to the center by a primary care physician, the doctors and nurses there will "tune up the patient" with frequent monitoring of the disease, regular visits, counseling, telephone calls and drugs. Once patients are tuned up, they return to the care of their regular doctor.

One goal of the center is to do education outreach with primary care physicians on the latest care protocols.