Alicia is one of our heart failure nurses who focuses on clinical heart failure care. She joined the heart failure team in July 2023 and has been instrumental in getting our Outpatient Diuresis Clinic operational and making the diuresis treatment process a success by building macros for consistent documentation, writing checklists for staff and patients to use, and ensuring all pertinent staff were educated on the process. Heart failure patients who have significant fluid overload often have to go into the hospital to receive IV diuretics. This is not only a stressful experience for patients who already feel poorly, but it separates them from their family, keeps them away from their home, and is expensive. With the Diuresis Clinic, patients who are symptomatic can come into the clinic, have a rapid set of labs done to ensure the treatment is safe to give in the outpatient setting, and then receive the IV diuretics they need - and then they get to go home! She gives these patients and their families face-to-face education and reinforcement of treatment plans. She closely follows up with them over the phone in the following days to monitor their symptoms and works with their providers to make any medication adjustments necessary to help keep them out of the hospital. The Diuresis Clinic opened in early November and has already treated and helped keep over ten heart failure patients out of the hospital and home with their families.

Our other heart failure nurse left Intermountain very suddenly last week. This time of year is very demanding on the HF team because all of the PAs and patient assistance for the specialty medications are being renewed for the new year, and we're in the final stretch. This work was done primarily by the RN no longer with us. Without being asked, and with limited context on where things were in the process, Alicia stepped in and absorbed this work to make sure that our patients don't have any gaps in medication coverage.