Advanced Cardiac Care
We're Here to Help Care for Your Heart
No family should go without specialized care for heart disease, heart failure, and stroke. Unity is here to support you and your loved ones with our innovative, Advanced Cardiac Care Program, established nationally in collaboration with the National Partnership for Healthcare and Hospice Innovation (NPHI) and the American Heart Association (AHA).
Program Goals
- Support the highest quality of life possible through symptom management
- Prevent emergency room and hospital visits to keep you in the comfort of home
- Increase your ability to cope with advanced heart disease, including congestive heart failure (CHF)
- Boost patient and family confidence and caregiving skills
Advanced Cardiac Care helps you and your family meet these goals through:
- Personalized care plan based on wishes of patient that specify care goals, shared collaboratively with the patient’s primary doctor
- Regularly scheduled visits to the patient’s home by specially-trained nurses to evaluate and manage cardiac symptoms
- Additional supportive care from Certified Nursing Assistants, Social Workers, Chaplains, Grief Counselors, and Volunteers
- Ongoing education related to disease process and changing care needs
- Medications and self-care techniques designed to control symptoms at home
- 24 hour access to RN telephone consultation
- Respite care to allow caregivers short-term relief
Patient and Caregiver Handbook
All patients enrolled in the Advanced Cardiac Care Program will receive a printed copy of the Patient and Caregiver Handbook which contains the best standards of care for end stage heart failure. Access this free resource guide here which contains self-help tips to manage symptoms at home.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Our clinical team works with your physician to coordinate care
- We reduce or eliminate frequent visits to the emergency room
- We help you manage symptoms at home
- We educate your caregivers to deliver needed support
- We provide guidance on improving your quality of life
- We arrange for medications to ease your symptoms
- We employ proven procedures to treat shortness of breath and chest pain
- We offer respite care to allow caregivers short-term relief
Cardiac care can start as soon as you or you or a loved one receives a cardiovascular disease diagnosis. Most people who receive care say they wish they had started care sooner.
Here are some early signs and symptoms Advanced Cardiac Care may be appropriate.
- Numerous emergency room or hospital visits for disease complications
- Frequent calls or multiple visits to doctor’s office
- Current heart medications seem less effective
- Shortness of breath, even while resting
- Chest pain
- Swelling in your arms, legs or abdomen due to fluid build-up
- Persistent cough or congestion
- Significant, unintentional weight loss
- Chooses to focus on quality of life
Unity brings Advanced Cardiac Care to you. Our care team makes visits anywhere you call home throughout our 13 county service area. (link to our service area map). Whether you reside in your own home or apartment, a family member’s home, Unity Meng Hospice Residence, an assisted living facility or skilled nursing home, Unity will be there to provide an extra layer of specialized cardiac support.
Advanced Cardiac Care is covered by Medicare, Medicaid and most private insurance plans.
You can change your mind and stop Advanced Cardiac Care for any reason at any time. Similarly, if you stop receiving care and later want to return to it, you can do that, too.
Anyone can make a referral to Advanced Cardiac Care – a patient, family member, friend, spiritual leader, social worker or doctor. After the information is received by Unity, our staff will contact the patient’s primary doctor to verify that the patient is appropriate for the program. Early referrals ensure the patient and family can benefit from all that Unity provides.
If you think you and your family could benefit from the support of home care visits from a team who specialize in cardiac care and associated pain and symptom management, assistance with bathing and medication management, emotional and spiritual support, ask your doctor if Advanced Cardiac Care might be something to consider now, or in the near future. You can also call Unity now to request care. We’ll connect with your primary doctor on your behalf to ensure eligibility.
An Advanced Cardiac Care Program Guide is available to download.