SVMC cardiology

 

 

STRIVING TO IMPROVE YOUR LIFE ONE BEAT AT A TIME

You get one life and you get one heart. The board-certified cardiologists and associated practitioners at SVMC Cardiology are committed to helping you make the most of both.

Our patient-centered approach to care and personalized care plans maximize your quality of life while delivering the treatment you need when you need it.

Creating the appropriate treatment plan for your condition begins with a cardiac consultation. Your consultation is a chance for you to share your health history and current concerns with your cardiologist. All necessary exams and tests are conducted on-site by your cardiac care team. The results are shared and discussed directly with you so that you fully understand your condition, treatment options, associated risks, and potential lifestyle changes.

After a heart episode or surgery, there’s nothing our cardiac team and you want more than for you to just get back on your feet and live the life you want. That’s why we begin your rehabilitation program before you even leave the hospital. Through a combination of education and exercise, your personalized program will help you build strength and reduce your risk factors. Using the full range of cardio equipment in our Cardiac Rehab Center and under the watchful eye of our rehab team, you’ll improve your heart’s strength and capacity and get closer to resuming a full and active lifestyle. For more information about Cardiac Rehabilitation, click here.

In order to understand how well your heart is or isn’t functioning, an echocardiogram may be performed. This non-invasive procedure uses sound waves to produce images of your heart. Both of SVMC’s cardiologists are board certified in echocardiography and able to observe how your heart is pumping and identify any abnormalities in the heart muscle or valves. An echocardiogram allows our team to make the most informed and appropriate recommendations for the next steps in your care.

If a standard echocardiogram does not provide a clear image of your heart, your SVMC care team may recommend a transesophageal echocardiogram or TEE. Performed at the hospital, this procedure involves inserting a flexible tube containing a transducer down your throat and into your esophagus. From this closer vantage point, the transducer then uses sound waves to create more detailed images of your heart and allows for better diagnosis.

Before we treat your heart, we need understand how it’s performing. At SVMC we offer a number of non-invasive stress tests that can quickly and easily reveal a number of things including: how well your heart works during increasing levels of activity; how certain medications are impacting blood flow; the effectiveness of procedures done to improve heart performance; and more.

If you have risk factors for heart disease, calcium scoring may may help you learn more about whether you are actually at risk. The non-invasive test uses high-speed CT imaging technology to measure the hardening of the heart’s arteries, a leading indicator of heart disease and heart attacks. Visit the calcium scoring page for complete details. 

A pacemaker is one of the most effective ways to ensure a heart maintains a steady, healthy beat. The SVMC cardiac team is exceptionally skilled and experienced at both pacemaker implantation and monitoring. Considered a minor surgery, implantation takes place at the hospital with most patients returning to normal activity (and a more steadily beating heart) within a few days. Like all medical equipment, pacemakers need a little TLC every now and then. At SVMC our cardiac team can perform routine monitoring, both remotely and in the office, and reprogramming as needed.

One of the most common cardiac diagnostic tools, an EKG is a painless way to check for problems with the electrical activity of your heart. The EKG translates and records your heart’s electrical activity over a period of time and translates it into waves. Your SVMC care provider can use printouts of the waves to detect any patterns that might point to a specific condition and put together a treatment plan that meets your specific needs.

Should your SVMC cardiac care provider want to monitor your heart over a longer period of time than is practical for a standard EKG, you may be given a Holter or event monitor. Worn outside the body and completely painless, monitors are helpful in detecting abnormalities that only happen occasionally and can help your doctor link any abnormalities to specific activities or events in your day.

Carotid ultrasound
At SVMC our goal is to treat your health issues before they become problems. Using our sophisticated carotid ultrasound test, your cardiac care provider can detect blockages in your neck arteries that could lead to a stroke or indicate problems in other parts or your circulatory system.

Education
Because understanding what causes heart problems is essential to resolving them, we offer a variety of educational resources to patients and their families.  Workshops are offered on an ongoing basis throughout the Dartmouth-Hitchcock network, and condition-specific literature is available in our offices. 

SVMC Cardiac Rehab

SVMC Pulmonology

American Heart Association 

Go Red for Women 

American College of Cardiology 

140 Hospital Drive, Suite 211, Bennington, VT 05201
Phone: (802) 442-0800
Fax: (833) 343-1597

Hours:
Monday – Friday:  8:30 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Directions: 
For directions to SVMC Cardiology, click here. 

Parking:
For appointments at SVMC Cardiology, park in parking area P3 or P5.

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    Bars, Cars, and Other COVID Hotspots
    Administrator Account
    / Categories: WELLNESS, 2020

    Bars, Cars, and Other COVID Hotspots

    We are used to thinking of COVID hotpots as areas of the country that are experiencing uncontrolled outbreaks. They are the states and counties that are all lit up in red and yellow on the evening news. What if we applied that same “hotspot” idea to our neighborhoods or activities? Which places would it be best to avoid?

    Bars and Restaurants.  Bars and restaurants are tough places to follow COVID restrictions. The reason for being there is to eat and drink, which means all of the patrons will likely have their masks down for most of the time. On top of that, alcohol limits inhibitions and lessens people’s perception of risks. Just as people who have been drinking are more likely to get themselves in trouble, they are more likely to disregard important precautions. Finally, loud music and others talking makes it harder to hear, so people are more likely to stand close together.

    If you feel you must dine and drink out, choose a restaurant that is abiding by the state’s guidance. There should be adequate room to distance, and employees must wear a mask. Patrons should remove masks only once they are seated. Socialize only with members of your household, and eat fast. The risk of transmission increases as time indoors increases.  

    Cars. Riding in a car with people outside your household is a pretty high-risk activity, too. Cars offer such limited air space. If someone in the car is infected, there is nowhere for the virus to go, except into another passenger’s mouth. Avoid carpooling. If you must ride with someone from outside your household, wear masks and roll the windows down to the greatest extent possible.

    Travel. Up until very recently, the vast majority of cases in Vermont were related to travel. Only one person in a group needs to have gone anywhere in order to infect others. If you are getting together with others, it is especially important to be sure that they have not spent time elsewhere within the last two weeks. Even if no one has, wear masks, stay outside, keep the visit brief, and stay 6 feet apart.

    Weddings. Some of the largest outbreaks in our region have started at weddings. Weddings combine people who know each other well (and often have not seen each other in a long time) with travel, food, and drinks. Wedding guests sometimes share rides, too. It’s as if you took all the COVID hotspots and rolled them into one. Add to that a whole lot of “once in a lifetime” and “love is the most important thing,” and weddings are easily “the most likely place to catch COVID.” Even throwing a small wedding is not advised. As Vermont Commissioner of Health Dr. Mark Levine often says, just because you can do something without going against recommendations doesn’t mean you should.

    Home. Interestingly, our homes are both the safest places and the least safe. When we limit our exposure, our homes can be a place to take off our masks and relax a little. We can get as close as we like to those we love. But if a member of your household has become infected with COVID and doesn’t know it, the chances are super high that the other members of the household will get it too. In fact, upwards of 80 percent of spread happens in the home.

    That’s why it’s super important to isolate members of the household who have been elsewhere lately, including college students returning home for the holidays. For 2 weeks (or 7 days with a negative COVID test), spend your time in separate rooms. Wear masks when in common areas within an hour of one another. Eat separately and use different bathrooms, if possible. And frequently disinfect objects both the traveler and non-travelers touch.

    Perhaps surprisingly, primary and secondary schools do not seem to be major sources of outbreaks. People hear about cases when a member of their school community—a student, teacher, or staff member—tests positive. But school is not usually the source or a mode of further transmission. Our mitigation efforts appear to be working. Similarly, except in rare cases, we are not hearing about more than an isolated case or two coming out of any particular workplace. So going to work and to school would be green on our COVID map.   

    Donna Barron, RN, is the infection preventionist at Southwestern Vermont Medical Center.

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    Tags: infectious disease COVID-19 spread

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