The following article is from the Advanced Heart Failure referring provider newsletter.
Physicians can be confident their patients are in good hands when they refer them to the UW Health ventricular assist device (VAD) program.
“Our program is highly integrated across the full spectrum of care, from referral to long-term follow-up,” said Dr. Veli Topkara, medical director of the Heart Failure, Cardiac Transplantation and Mechanical Circulatory Support Program at UW Health.
When patients receive a referral to our program, their first appointment will be an intake visit with a cardiologist. After that, the program’s VAD coordinator will call them to schedule an evaluation, which includes three days of comprehensive visits.
Once patients have completed their tests and consults over those three days, they bring the case to a multidisciplinary committee that decides if there is a reason to continue.
“The referral process is very streamlined,” said Topkara. “From the moment we get that phone call, we immediately go into the patient’s chart and get a lot of that information right away. If there’s no red flag, in many cases we can complete an expedited review within a week.”
The team that reviews each case includes cardiologists, specialized advanced practice providers, nurse coordinators and social workers.
“We’ll guide the patient in the direction that’s most appropriate for them,” said Heather Jaeger, clinical manager of the heart failure and transplant program. “Our APPs and nurse coordinators work collaboratively to educate patients before and after they receive the device and support their transition through the process. They coordinate everything from clinic visits to ensuring our patients are getting their dental work done locally.”
These staff members also make sure future VAD recipients know what to expect before they go through the procedure.
“A lot of people aren’t thinking at the granular level of what life looks like,” Jaeger said. “’How am I going to create routines?’ The transition becomes supporting them as they learn to take care of themselves beyond the device.”