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. 

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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    SVHC Foundation Renames Community Service Award in Honor of Past Trustee
    Administrator Account
    / Categories: NEWS, 2019

    SVHC Foundation Renames Community Service Award in Honor of Past Trustee

    BENNINGTON, VT—April 29, 2019—Southwestern Vermont Health Care (SVHC) Foundation has renamed its annual Vision Award for Distinguished Community Service for Sean Casey, a member of the SVHC Board of Trustees, who passed away suddenly last month.

    “Sean’s passing came as a tremendous shock to all of us and to the community,” said SVHC’s President and CEO Thomas A. Dee, FACHE. “We miss his intellect, his sense of humor, and his generosity of spirit. In fact, Sean is exactly the type of person that we acknowledge for distinguished community service.” 

    Tommy Harmon, the chair of the Board of Trustees added, “When one of our board members recommended we change the name of the award to reflect Sean’s legacy, everyone agreed. We will all take pride in calling it the Sean L. Casey Distinguished Community Service Award.” 

    The change of the name of the community service award coincides with the announcement of the 2019 Vision Awards Honorees. This year, SVHC names two Vision Award honorees, a physician and a group, for their efforts to advance the health system’s vision of healthier communities. SVHC’s 2019 Health Care Leadership Award honoree is Nancy Scattergood, MD. The SVHC Auxiliary is the recipient of SVHC’s 2019 Sean L. Casey Distinguished Community Service Award.

    “The positive impact Dr. Scattergood and the Auxiliary have made on our health system and in our communities cannot be overstated,” said Thomas A. Dee, president and CEO of SVHC. “It is through their generous support and their dedicated service that we fulfill our mission of exceptional care and comfort and achieve our vision as a preeminent, rural health care system.”

    Nancy Scattergood, MD, is the 2019 Health Care Leadership Honoree. Dr. Scattergood earned her bachelor’s degree in biology from Franklin & Marshall College in Pennsylvania. For her medical degree, she attended the College of Medicine and Dentistry at Rutgers in New Jersey and Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. She completed an internship and her residency at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She has been a member of Southwestern Vermont Medical Center’s medical staff since 1983. She was president of the medical staff in 1996. 

    The SVHC Auxiliary was founded one year after the hospital itself. It celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2019. Through a century of volunteer fundraising efforts, the Auxiliary has contributed more than $1 million to the hospital and community health programs.

    “It is a pleasure to acknowledge this year’s Vision Awards honorees for their extraordinary contributions,” said Tommy Harmon, chair of the SVHC Board of Trustees. “They have improved countless lives through their gifts of service and generosity.”

    Both Scattergood and the Auxiliary will be honored at The Summer Gala, which will take place Saturday, June 8, 2019, at the 1768 Hubbell Homestead at Colgate Park in Bennington. All proceeds will benefit the health system. For tickets or more information, contact the foundation office at (802) 447-5017.

    About:
    Southwestern Vermont Health Care (SVHC) is a comprehensive, preeminent, health care system providing exceptional, convenient, and affordable care to the communities of Bennington and Windham Counties of Vermont, eastern Rensselaer and Washington Counties of New York, and northern Berkshire County in Massachusetts. SVHC includes Southwestern Vermont Medical Center (SVMC), Southwestern Vermont Regional Cancer Center, the Centers for Living and Rehabilitation, and the SVHC Foundation. SVMC includes 25 primary and specialty care practices. For more information, visit svhealthcare.org.

    Southwestern Vermont Health Care complies with applicable Federal civil rights laws and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, disability, or sex. Language assistance services, free of charge, are available at 1-800-367-9559.

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