American Nurse Today Article Focuses on Heart Failure, the Most Common Medicare Diagnosis-Related Group

Doylestown, PA, February 27, 2009 --(PR.com)-- Heart failure (HF) is the most common Medicare diagnosis-related group. About 5 million Americans have HF and at least 550,000 more are newly diagnosed each year.

“Although heart failure incidence hasn’t declined in the past 20 years, overall survival has improved,” Held and Sturtz write. Nurses play a pivotal role in that improvement by providing on-target care.

The authors focus on acute decompensated HF, including the body’s response, classification, medical treatment, and nursing care, including patient education. Both authors work at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio. Held is a Clinical Nurse Specialist and Sturtz is a Certified Nurse Practitioner.

“Maria and Marjorie have written an excellent overview of the management of acute decompensated heart failure,” says Pamela Cipriano, PhD, RN, FAAN, NEA-BC, Editor-in-Chief of American Nurse Today. “Their article gives nurses the knowledge they need to help manage patients with heart failure from immediate life-saving treatment, through long term therapy so they can live their lives at the highest functional level possible.”

American Nurse Today reaches 175,000 nurses including 160,000 members of ANA. In addition to keeping nurses abreast of ANA’s advocacy for the profession, American Nurse Today provides valuable, peer-reviewed, evidence based clinical, practical and career information that nurses can assimilate into their busy practices immediately.

HealthCom Media is a specialty publishing company located in Doylestown, PA. The company also publishes other specialty journals including Menopause Management, Assisted Living Consult, and Medicare Patient Management.

The American Nurses Association is the only full-service professional organization representing the nation's 2.9 million registered nurses through its 54 constituent member associations. The ANA advances the nursing profession by fostering high standards of nursing practice, promoting the economic and general welfare of nurses in the workplace, projecting a positive and realistic view of nursing, and by lobbying Congress and the regulatory agencies on healthcare issues affecting nurses and the public.

The American Nurses Association Center for Continuing Education and Professional Development is accredited as a provider of continuing nursing education by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation.

ANA is approved by the California Board of Registered Nursing, Provider Number 6178.

For more information, please contact Tyra London, Associate Publisher, HealthCom Media at (215) 489-7000, ext.117, e-mail: tlondon@healthcommedia.com or Eileen Gallen, Editorial Manager, at ext. 131,
e-mail: egallen@healthcommedia.com.

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