Hospice nurse answering a 2 a.m. cardiac symptom call

Cardiac Care for advanced heart disease.

Expert symptom management at home, instead of another ambulance ride.

See if you qualify

Cardiac expertise, brought to the living room.

Nurses available 24 hours a day

All approved cardiac medications, including an in-home cardiac emergency kit

All supplies and equipment, including oxygen, delivered to you

Patient and caregiver education on how the disease progresses

Is it time to consider cardiac hospice?

It may be, if hospital stays are becoming frequent, or if your loved one is on maximum medication doses and still has labored breathing, chest pain, swelling, or exhaustion from light activity.

You do not have to decide alone. Call and we will talk it through honestly.

Who qualifies?What happens after you call?

How we break the hospital cycle

The usual night

The pattern is familiar. Breathing gets worse in the evening, it is frightening by midnight, somebody calls 911, and the night ends under fluorescent lights waiting for a bed. Three days later you come home more tired than when you left, and the clock starts again.

The same night, with Cardiac Care

When symptoms flare at two in the morning, you call us instead. A nurse answers, works out what is happening, and talks you through the emergency kit that already sits in your kitchen. If a visit is needed, we arrange one.

The goal is for flares to end in the living room rather than the emergency room. That is the whole point of the program.

Living with advanced heart disease

As heart failure advances, the changes are gradual and then suddenly obvious. Energy runs out earlier in the day. Stairs become a decision. Ankles and legs swell. Appetite fades, and food that used to be a pleasure becomes a chore.

Care adapts to each of those. We pace the day around the hours when energy is best, rather than pretending mornings and evenings are the same. We use positioning and airflow so that breathing takes less work. And our team goes through the medication list, because by this stage most people are taking several things that work against each other.

A woman with advanced heart failure resting upright in a recliner in her own living room, a blanket across her lap — Sitting upright rather than lying flat is often the difference between a hard night and a manageable one. Setting up the chair, the pillows, and the airflow is part of the first visit.

For the caregiver

Any one of these is worth a phone call.

And when you are not sure, call anyway. You are not bothering anyone. Answering that call is the service.

You will not be guessing about the emergency kit either. A nurse goes through it with you at the first visit, shows you what each thing is for, and writes it down in plain language so that it makes sense at two in the morning when it matters.

Clinical criteria for cardiac hospice

What cardiac hospice covers

The detail behind the program, for anyone who wants it before they call.

Who comes to the house

Cardiac Care is a team rather than a single visiting nurse. A hospice physician works alongside your own cardiologist. A nurse manages symptoms and sets the visit schedule. An aide helps with bathing and dressing on the days that is hard. A social worker handles benefits, paperwork, and the practical problems that pile up. A chaplain and a grief counselor are available to anyone in the household who wants them.

Medicines, equipment, and the kit

Medications, equipment, and supplies related to the heart condition are covered and delivered to the house. That includes oxygen, a hospital bed or a recliner if sitting up helps breathing, and the in-home emergency kit. Most cardiac medications continue. Diuretics in particular are usually kept, because keeping fluid down is what keeps breathing easier. A nurse walks through the kit with you before you ever need it.

You stay in control

Hospice does ask a doctor to certify a prognosis, meaning a best estimate of how much time is left, of six months or less if the illness follows its usual course. That is an estimate and not a deadline, and people are recertified and stay longer. Choosing it is not a one way door either. You can stop hospice at any time, for any reason, including to return to treatment.