Baylor Scott & White All Saints Medical Center – Fort Worth now offers comprehensive care for patients with advanced heart failure, including left ventricular support devices and other mechanical circulatory support. The advanced heart failure team implanted its first LVAD in July.
The Advanced Heart Failure Clinic at Baylor Scott & White – Fort Worth comprises advanced heart failure specialists, advanced heart failure-trained surgeons, cardiac anesthesiologists and critical care physicians on the medical staff and a dedicated heart failure nurse and nurse practitioner. Also on the team are ECMO coordinators, LVAD coordinators, social workers specifically trained in LVAD patient management, and palliative care. In the last two years, the clinic has grown to more than 300 patients.
“We are building a strong program in Fort Worth,” says Salman Gohar, MD, FACC, Medical Director, Advanced Heart Failure and Mechanical Circulatory Support Service at Baylor Scott & White – Fort Worth. “We have an outpatient diuretic clinic, a key component of managing patients with advanced heart failure. We have built a specialty clinic for cardiac amyloidosis and started genetic testing for inheritable cardiomyopathies. At the same time, we were successfully credentialed for LVAD implantation, an alternative therapy for patients not eligible for heart transplant that can enhance longevity and quality of life.”
Dan Meyer, MD, Chief of Cardiac Transplantation and Advanced Cardiac Circulatory Support, Baylor Dallas, says “Baylor Scott & White All Saints is the first hospital in Fort Worth that can provide the left ventricular assist device as an option for management of advanced heart failure. The use of the LVAD is another great advance that extends the duration and quality of life of these patients. We are excited be able to offer this to patients in the Fort Worth area.” The comprehensive team of cardiologists, cardiac surgeons, and intensive care physicians on the medical staff, along with critical care nurses, operating room personnel, respiratory and physical therapists, are just a few of the professionals available care for these complex patients.“
