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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    Is Your Baby on Track?
    Grace Weatherby
    / Categories: WELLNESS, 2024

    Is Your Baby on Track?

    From their very first breath, children are constantly developing and changing. While it’s easy to appreciate that they’re physically getting bigger, other milestones—like smiling or laughing for the first time—are important indicators of how your little one is developing mentally and emotionally.

    In addition to getting vaccines and tracking their growth, regular wellness visits with your child’s doctor are important for gauging how your little one is doing developmentally. It’s helpful to track and share with the doctor what new behaviors or skills your baby is displaying.

    Some significant milestones to watch for include:

    3-4 months: Turns their head towards bright color and lights, moves both eyes in the same direction together, recognizes bottle or breast, reacts to sudden sounds and voices, makes cooing sounds, makes fists with both hands, grasps toys or hair, wiggles and kicks arms and legs, lifts head and chest when on stomach, smiles

    6 months: Turns toward the source of normal sound, reaches for objects and picks them up, switches toys from one hand to the other, plays with their toes, helps hold bottle during feeding, recognizes familiar faces, babble, rolls from tummy to back, and sits up using their hands for help.

    9 months: Recognizes and responds to their name, able to sit without assistance, able to “pincer grasp” small items, a new sense of stranger danger will keep them firmly attached to your hip during most waking hours. 

    12 months: Pulls to standing position, crawls, drinks from a cup, plays peek-a-boo and patty cake, waves bye-bye, holds out arms and legs while being dressed, puts objects in a container, stack two blocks, uses 3 or more words consistently (especially Mama and Dada)

    15 months: Can follow simple directions, feeds themselves with their fingers, walks a few steps without assistance, shows affection, claps when excited

    18 months: Enjoys pushing, pulling, and dumping things; likes to look at pictures; makes marks on paper with crayons; walks without help; consistently uses seven or more true single words; climbs on furniture; try drinking from a cup

    By 2 years: Uses 2- to 3-word sentences, says names of toys, recognizes familiar pictures, carries something while walking, feeds themselves with spoon, plays independently, turn 2 to 3 pages at a time, imitates their parents, identifies body parts (hair, nose, ears, eyes) by pointing, stacks four blocks, shows affection

    By 3 years: Uses 3- to 5-word sentences, jumps, puts on shoes, walks upstairs alternating feet, ride a tricycle, opens doors, turns one page at a time, begins to play with other children, repeats common rhymes, names at least one color correctly, are toilet trained

    Again, not every child hits every milestone at the same time as others. While there’s no need to panic, it is important to share any concerns with your child’s doctor.

    They may recommend you get support through organizations like Children’s Integrative Services (CIS). As specialists in childhood development, they can evaluate your baby’s development further and provide any recommended intervention services, many at no cost to you. Best of all, they’ll come to your home or meet at whatever location works best for you. The key is to ask for help early so support can be provided at the most critical times of development.

     

    Meghan Gunn, MD, FAAP is the Medical Director of SVMC Pediatrics.

     

     

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