Palliative care plays an essential role in heart failure care
Palliative care should play a significant role in the day-to-day management of heart failure (HF) patients, according to new recommendations from the Heart Failure Society of America (HFSA).
HF patients are associated with high mortality and a considerably worse quality of life, the group wrote. Care teams should be doing everything in their power to help patients control their symptoms and live the best lives possible.
The HFSA guidance is available in full in the Journal of Cardiac Failure.[1]
“Many HF clinicians recognize the importance of palliative care in the context of HF disease management,” co-lead author Sarah Chuzi, MD, MSc, a HF and heart transplantation specialist with Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, said in a statement. “In practice, however, integrating palliative care into local HF care is challenging. This is complicated by the fact that there have previously not been consensus standards that define optimal integrated HF-palliative care, or guidance for how palliative care should be operationalized in HF management.”
One key takeaway from the group’s recommendations is the effectiveness of communication frameworks. These can be difficult conversations to have with a patient, and HFSA encourages cardiologists to use these frameworks to ensure they are putting the right foot forward and getting the most out of every encounter.
“When using a guide, conversations are more likely to be feasible, acceptable and associated with positive experiences for both patients and clinicians,” the authors wrote.
The new guidance also examines ongoing disparities in palliative care for minorities and other medically underserved groups.
“Patients who are socioeconomically disadvantaged and/or uninsured/underinsured are less likely to access community palliative care services,” the authors wrote. “Facilitating expanded access to high-quality primary and specialty PC should be a clinical and research priority in HF.”
Click here to review the full consensus statement.
Michael has more than 19 years of experience as a professional writer and editor. He has written at length about cardiology, radiology, artificial intelligence and other key healthcare topics.