New HFSA Consensus Statement Provides Practical Guide for Implementing Palliative Care with Heart Failure Patients

WASHINGTON, Nov. 26, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Patients with heart failure (HF) suffer from compromised quality of life, high mortality, and complex medical decision-making. Palliative care is an essential part of a comprehensive HF care plan. Integration of Palliative Care into Heart Failure Care: Consensus-Based Recommendations from the Heart Failure Society of America (HFSA), published today in the Journal of Cardiac Failure (JCF), is a practical guide for implementing palliative care as a component of overall HF care.

It has been shown that palliative care interventions improve disease-specific quality of life, symptom control, and caregiver burden among patients with HF. Authors of the statement are indicating that HF clinicians should be skilled in providing primary palliative care with competence in basic domains including the management of physical and psychosocial symptoms and serious illness communication.

"Many HF clinicians recognize the importance of palliative care in the context of HF disease management. 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," said co-lead author Sarah Chuzi, MD, MSc (Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL).

Dr. Chuzi went on to add, "In this consensus, we not only delineate high quality primary and specialty palliative care, but we also review how to optimize palliative care delivery models in the context of local resources, outline novel measures to define and measure the quality of palliative care-HF integration, and provide guidance on how to provide palliative care to special HF populations. The ability of HF programs to consistently provide comprehensive, high quality palliative care to patients is critical to improving the quality of HF care."

In addition to reviewing the guidance found within the Integration of Palliative Care into Heart Failure Care: Consensus-Based Recommendations from the Heart Failure Society of America, clinicians can use the Top Ten Take-Home Messages slide deck, designed by the statement's lead author, as a quick reference guide, available on the hfsa.org website.

The Integration of Palliative Care into Heart Failure Care: Consensus-Based Recommendations from the Heart Failure Society of America is available online in the JCF at www.onlinejcf.com.

DOI: 10.1016/j.cardfail.2024.10.435

View all HFSA published scientific statements, guidelines and other clinical documents.

Top 10 Key Takeaways

1. Palliative care is medical care for patients with serious illness that aims to enhance quality of life and assist with complex decision-making
2. Palliative care interventions improve disease-specific quality of life, symptom control, and caregiver burden among patients with HF
3. HF clinicians should be skilled in providing primary palliative care with competence in basic domains including management of physical and psychosocial symptoms and serious illness communication
4. Referral to specialty palliative care is indicated for certain patient subsets; ideally, palliative care specialists have familiarity with complex HF care
5. Impactful palliative care models maximize alignment of available clinical resources with the clinical needs of the population served
6. Programmatic structure and process measures should be used to define quality of care provided by integrated HF-palliative care programs
7. Additional measures that programs can use to measure the quality of HF-palliative care include those related to clinical quality, satisfaction, access, and healthcare utilization
8. HF clinicians should understand reimbursement mechanisms for performing palliative care services
9. Integrated HF-palliative care teams should promote optimal communication with and referral to hospice agencies
10. Recommendations are provided for the provision of palliative care to special populations (adult congenital heart disease, left ventricular assist device, heart transplant)

About the Heart Failure Society of America

The Heart Failure Society of America, Inc. (HFSA) represents the first organized effort by heart failure experts from the Americas to provide a forum for all those interested in heart function, heart failure, and congestive heart failure (CHF) research and patient care. The mission of HFSA is to provide a platform to improve and expand heart failure care through collaboration, education, innovation, research, and advocacy. HFSA members include physicians, scientists, nurses, nurse practitioners, pharmacists, trainees, other healthcare workers and patients. For more information, visit hfsa.org.

About the Journal of Cardiac Failure

The Journal of Cardiac Failure (JCF) publishes the highest quality science in the field of heart failure with a focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion, mentorship, multidisciplinary partnerships, and patient-centeredness. Published papers span original investigator-initiated work to state-of-the-art reviews, guidelines and scientific statements, expert perspectives, early career and trainee spotlight pieces, patient and patient-partner narratives. JCF also emphasizes the power of language and prioritizes innovative approaches to dissemination of published work to reach and impact the broader heart failure community.

Media Contact: Laura Poko, 301-798-4493, ext. 226, [email protected]

SOURCE Heart Failure Society of America