The Southern: SIH opens new heart failure clinic in Murphysboro
Dr. Muhammad Khan, cardiologist with SIH Prairie Heart Institute, speaks Wednesday during grand opening of a new heart failure clinic at SIH St. Joseph Memorial Hospital in Murphysboro. -- Marilyn Halstead
Dr. Muhammad Khan, cardiologist with SIH Prairie Heart Institute, and Terry Burns of Marion, a heart failure patient and heart transplant recipient, spoke Wednesday at SIH St. Joseph Memorial Hospital as part of grand opening festivities for a new outpatient heart failure clinic at the hospital in Murphysboro. It is the second such clinic in the SIH family.
Lee Anheuser, clinic coordinator and registered nurse, said the clinic gives another option to patients in and around Murphysboro.
“We’re here to help guide patients, build rapport with them and get them through their medical need,” she said.
The clinic connects patients with education about the heart failure diet, symptom management and lifestyle modification; a 24-hour resource phone line; telehealth programs; medical therapy consistent with evidence-based practices and emergent intravenous diuretic therapy that can help patients avoid a stay in the hospital.
As Dr. Khan thought about speaking at the opening for the clinic, he began to count the number of people who touched the lives of his patients during one hospital admission, one clinic visit and one visit with a Prairie cardiologist.
“I stopped counting at 200,” he said. “We all have a role to play with our patients and, if you take one person out, it just doesn’t work,” he said.