Definition of Heart Failure

Heart failure means your heart muscle does not pump as much blood as your body needs. Failure does not mean that your heart has stopped. It means that your heart is not pumping as well as it should. Because your heart cannot pump well, your body tries to make up for it. To do this:

• Your body holds on to salt and water. This increases the amount of blood in your bloodstream.
• Your heart beats faster.
• Your heart becomes enlarged.

For a more complete description of heart failure, click here. 

Process of Care Measures for Heart Failure

Process of care measures indicate how many patients at Piedmont Mountainside Hospital receive treatments commonly regarded as effective in treating heart failure. To help you gauge the relevance of these findings, we compare our scores to other facilities at the national and state level. Please select the dropdown tabs below to see the results and definitions associated with each measure.

Data for Piedmont Mountainside Hospital is for July 2010 – June 2011. Datafor Georgia and National scores are for January – December 2010.