Advanced Heart Failure

The St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center Advanced Heart Failure team is expert at diagnosing and treating cardiomyopathies/heart failure as well as other complex conditions involving the heart.

The multidisciplinary team of cardiologists, cardiac surgeons, nurses, and support staff work with each patient to develop an individualized treatment plan.

The program has been recognized as:

• The recipient of the 2017, 2018, and 2019 Get With The Guidelines®-Heart Failure Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award and 2016 Get With The Guidelines®-Heart Failure Silver Plus Quality Achievement Award for implementing specific quality improvement measures outlined by the American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology Foundation’s secondary prevention guidelines for patients with heart failure
• A regional center for outpatient intravenous Lasix infusion, which is a dedicated “Lasix Spa” to help patients manage unneeded salt and fluid retention to promote diuresis and improve symptoms of fluid overload
• One of New England’s centers offering implantation and management of the CardioMEMS HF system: an implantable, wireless monitoring sensor for outpatients with heart failure. The CardioMEMS HF System is the first and only FDA-approved heart failure monitoring device proven to significantly reduce hospital admissions for heart failure and improve quality of life for advanced heart failure patients.
• Progressive program offering enrollment in innovative clinical trials and research studies
• A tertiary referral program for tailored therapy of advanced heart failure as well as evaluation and management of patients for left ventricular assist devices (LVAD) and cardiac transplantation in collaboration with Massachusetts General Hospital
• A SHOCK team center for the Northeast Steward Health Care region offering advanced mechanical support, including percutaneous LVAD and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) implanted by our interventional team

The Advanced Heart Failure Program supports the educational efforts of the Heart Failure Society of America. Learn more about heart failure by watching this educational video.

Heart Failure Disease Management Program

The Advanced Heart Failure Center offers a Disease Management Program to improve follow-up care and reduce readmissions for patients after a heart failure hospitalization. The program provides patients with a minimum of two check-in appointments via telemedicine, three and seven days after discharge.

Learn more about the Heart Failure Disease Management Program.

Our Team

Dr. Richard Patten has maintained his clinical focus on heart failure diagnosis and management throughout his career.  He is board certified in Cardiovascular Disease and Advanced Heart Failure and Cardiac Transplantation and an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine.  He has fulfilled several roles during his career that include Associate Medical Director of the Heart Failure and Cardiac Transplant Program at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, Medical Director of the Ventricular Assist Device program at Catholic Medical Center in Manchester, NH, and Director of the Lahey Health Integrated Heart Failure Network in Burlington, MA.  He most recently has assumed the role of Section Chief of Advanced Heart Failure at St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center and the regional Steward hospital network.  His current interests are focused broadly on heart failure disease management and more specifically on the diagnosis and management of infiltrative cardiomyopathies including sarcoidosis and amyloidosis.   

Iryna Zhukouskaya, NP, joined St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center in 2021, where she cares for heart failure patients and provides comprehensive education to help optimize their health. Iryna also helps oversee patients with the CardioMEMS remote pulmonary artery pressure monitoring system.  She earned her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from UMass Boston, and her Master of Science in the Adult Gerontology Nurse Practitioner Program at Boston College. She is board certification from the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners.

Jaclyn Lemoine, NP, joined St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center in 2016, where she cares for heart failure patients and provides comprehensive education to help optimize their health. Jaclyn also helps oversee patients with the CardioMEMS remote pulmonary artery pressure monitoring system.  She earned her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Boston College and later returned to complete her Master of Science in the Family Nurse Practitioner Program. Jaclyn received her FNP board certification from the American Nurses Credentialing Center.

Matthew MacLean, NP, cares for heart failure patients in both an inpatient and outpatient setting. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology at UMass Amherst, and went on to work at Boston Children’s Hospital in pediatric heart failure and heart transplantation research. He later studied nursing at the MGH Institute of Health Professions in the Direct-Entry Family Nurse Practitioner Program, later completing his Masters of Science in Nursing in the Family Nurse Practitioner program. He is board-certified by the American Nurses Credentialing Center.