Congestive Heart Failure Program

Nationally Certified

Forsyth Medical Center's Heart Failure Program is the first nationally certified Heart Failure Program in North or South Carolina by The Joint Commission. Our patients benefit from shorter hospital stays, fewer readmissions and lead healthier lives.  

Our cardiologists, nurse practitioners, and case managers have extensive experience and training in the management of patients with heart failure and coordinate their recommendations with your physician.

Succeeding For Heart Failure Patients

"Patients treated at Forsyth Medical Center's Heart Failure Clinic experience a substantially shorter length of hospital stay and fewer readmissions than the national average," says David L. Smull, D.O., Medical Director of the Heart Failure Program and one of the few fellowship-trained heart failure cardiologists in North Carolina.  "Nationally, somewhere between 40% and 60% of heart failure patients are readmitted to the hospital within six months, while for Forsyth Medical Center's Heart Failure Clinic patients, fewer than 10% are readmitted within a year.  In addition, our mortality rate for heart failure patients is about 5%, far below the national average of 11%."

One of the main contributors to these excellent outcomes is the program's focus on education and lifestyle changes.  The Heart Failure Program teaches patients how to manage their disease through diet, exercise, medications, disease management and stress management.  Frequent follow-up is also essential to ensure compliance with the treatment protocols.

For patients who require additional intervention for their congestive heart failure, the Heart Failure Program offers not just standard therapies, but also advanced procedures.  These can include the removal of excess fluid from the blood, ventricular remodeling surgery, implantation of pacemakers and/or defibrillators, enrollment in national research protocols and initial evaluations for cardiac transplantation.  We also offer palliative care for patients at the end of life to ease their symptoms and make their final days more comfortable.

Services offered include the following:

• Accurate and efficient diagnosis of the etiology of heart failure
• Personalized medical therapy based on the latest research and guidelines
• Evaluation and referral for Bi-Ventricular pacemaker/implantable cardiac defibrillator implantation
• Evaluation for surgical therapies including ventricular restoration surgery and valve repair
• Home inotrope infusion therapies
• Enhanced External Counterpulsation
• Intensive education program
• Case management
• Nutrition counseling to assist with dietary and salt restrictions
• Individual sessions with a Licensed Professional Counselor
• Referral for cardiac rehabilitation
• Cardiopulmonary stress testing
• Heart failure support group

"When primary care physicians send their patients to Forsyth Medical Center's Heart Failure Program, they can be assured that we operate under the highest standards and offer the patients the highest quality of care," Dr. Smull says.  "As the first congestive heart failure program in the Carolinas to be certified by the Joint Commission, we offer a level of care that is usually associated with the nation's leading academic centers.  It's just further evidence of our commitment to this community and the people who live here."