Heart Failure Patients Need More Than Heart Failure Care.

A s providers we often mentally identify our patients based on the most important condition we manage during clinical interactions, hence, for example, the term heart failure patient. In the coronary care unit we group patients into typical categories, such as ischemic, heart failure, or arrhythmia admissions. Such simplification is natural and helpful in remembering the correct patient and communicating with other providers. The coding of diagnoses with each clinic visit reinforces the association of the patient with 1 or perhaps a few conditions depending on how impatient we are with our electronic medical record. Although this is a useful way to track patients for population health this labeling overestimates the importance of the condition to the individual.