Hospitalization Patients undergo an intensive pretransplant evaluation upon admission. Once stabilized, patients are moved to the cardiothoracic transplant unit, where they receive specialized posttransplant care and begin cardiac rehabilitation. Support group meetings, led by a clinical social worker, are held weekly for transplant patients and their families. Past participants have indicated that the meetings add to an overall positive transplant experience and enhance the program's well-rounded approach. A primary nurse assigned to each patient enhances continuity of medical care and psychosocial support, provides additional patient teaching, and coordinates discharge planning.
Discharge planning includes daily group education classes and individual instruction.
Otherwise, they are discharged to a local housing facility. Once patients return home, a schedule for continued follow-up care is arranged. Follow-up evaluations include routine clinic visits, bronchoscopies, biopsies, laboratory tests, and imaging studies. Evaluations are performed frequently during the first year after transplant, and then with decreasing frequency afterwards. Transplant patients must make a lifetime commitment to ensure continued graft function and their own long-term survival.