Corewell Health says patients suffering from heart failure will be better served with the opening of its first advanced heart failure clinic in Southwest Michigan.
Located at 3950 Hollywood Road in St. Joseph, near several other Corewell offices, the Corewell advanced heart failure clinic is intended to help patients avoid having to make long drives for some treatments previously unavailable here.
Dr. Michael Dickinson, the former heart failure program director for Corewell Health in West Michigan, tells us he’s been pushing for a clinic like this for years. He says patients have better long-term prospects when the services they need are nearby.
“Patients are more likely to be offered transplant and more likely to get access to things like ventricular assist devices and transplant if they are able to have care locally,” Dickinson said.
Dickinson says with more options for treatment locally, heart failure patients won’t have to travel to Grand Rapids or Ann Arbor or Chicago unless they need complex treatments, like transplants, ventricular assist devices, or high-risk cardiac surgery.
“There is always within that population a subset that does not respond to therapy or has persistent symptoms despite therapy. And for those patients, we have a lot of other tools and tricks that we can deliver to them to improve their longevity. How long they live, but also how they live their lives, how they feel.”
Dickinson says heart failure is a common problem in Southwest Michigan, affecting more patients than many might think. Of the more than six million Americans living with heart failure, about 10% have advanced heart failure, according to the American Heart Association.
Anyone looking for more information about the new Corewell clinic can call Corewell and ask for a referral.
