Saint Thomas Hospital News

Contact: Paul Lindsley
615/222-6859
plindsley@stthomas.org

SAINT THOMAS HOSPITAL FIRST IN MIDDLE TENNESSEE TO OFFER OUTPATIENT THERAPY FOR HEART FAILURE PATIENTS

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - (Jan. 20, 2010) - Douglas Klein, 63, of Brentwood has lived with congestive heart failure for the past five years.

Congestive heart failure is a condition in which the heart can't pump enough blood to the body's other organs. One of the symptoms of heart failure is the retention and accumulation of fluid around the heart and the body's vital organs. Heart failure patients are typically admitted to the hospital for four to five days to have that fluid drained.

But today, Douglas Klein was the first heart failure patient in Middle Tennessee to receive this treatment as an outpatient in the Saint Thomas Heart Failure Clinic using the Aquapheresis medical therapy system.

"We are now able to use this filtering system to take out excess fluids on an outpatient basis," said Kristi Hayes, nurse practitioner in the Saint Thomas Heart Failure Clinic. "It now takes just a couple days, four or five hours at a time for this treatment, which allows patients to go home between visits. This technology keeps our patients from having to be admitted to the hospital, giving them peace of mind."

Klein said it just makes more sense. "Now I am able to receive this treatment in a comfortable setting. And I have the reassurance that I haven't been ‘in the hospital' for more than a year, which makes me more confident about my health."

Saint Thomas Health Services is a faith-based ministry with more than 6,500 associates serving Middle Tennessee. Saint Thomas Health Services' regional health system consists of four hospitals - Baptist and Saint Thomas in Nashville, Middle Tennessee Medical Center in Murfreesboro and Hickman Community Hospital in Centerville - and a comprehensive network of affiliated joint ventures in diagnostics, cardiac services and ambulatory surgery as well as medical practices, the Center for Spinal Surgery, clinics and rehabilitation facilities. STHS is a member of Ascension Health, a Catholic organization that is the largest not-for-profit health system in the United States. For more information, visit http://www.sths.com.