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.

    related articles

    Your Tick Defense Plan
    Anonym
    / Categories: WELLNESS, 2022

    Your Tick Defense Plan

    Anyone who has been out enjoying Vermont's wildlife areas in the past few weeks has likely noticed a tick or two. Ticks are very active in early spring. They have been dormant all winter, and they are hungry. And when they bite, they can transmit diseases, like Lyme disease and anaplasmosis. Follow the four-point plan below for protection against tick-borne illnesses.

    The most important thing you can do is to avoid getting bitten by a tick in the first place.

    • Avoid wooded and bushy areas and those with tall grass or leaf litter. (If you enjoy hiking, walk in the center of the trail.)
    • Use a repellent that contains 20 percent or more DEET, picaridin, or IR3535 on exposed skin, and follow the directions on the package.
    • You can also treat your clothing with permethrin, which both repels and kills ticks. It is very effective against tick bites and poses no threat to humans. It is often marketed for “clothing and gear.” One treatment, following to the directions on the package, can last up to six washings.

    Your next line of defense is to keep those ticks that found you from biting you.

    • Change clothes when you come inside. Wash them in hot water and tumble dry.
    • If possible, bathe or shower within 2 hours of coming indoors, as well.
    • Conduct a thorough tick check. Deer tick nymphs look as small as a poppy seed on your skin. They can hide in and behind ears, under arms, in the groin, and behind the knees. Check yourself, have a family member check your back and other areas that are difficult to see, and check your children carefully.

    In most cases, you have at least 24 hours to find and remove a feeding tick before it transmits and infection. So, if you find a tick on your skin, remove it immediately.

    • Use pointy tweezers or an aftermarket tick-removal device. Grab the tick as close to the skin as possible, and pull it straight upwards. Do not use any lubricants or hot objects. Mouthparts remaining in your skin does not increase the chances of infection. They will come out on their own.
    • Disinfect the area with alcohol or other disinfectant.
    • Identify the tick using online resources, if possible. Then flush it down the sink or toilet.

    Not all ticks are infected, so being bitten does not guarantee that you will get a tick-borne illness. Conversely, many of those who receive a tick-borne illness diagnosis don’t recall having been bitten. It's important to know the symptoms and watch for them.

    • Symptoms of Lyme and anaplasmosis are similar. They include flu-like symptoms, like fever and fatigue; head, neck, and joint aches; and enlarged lymph nodes. Usually the symptoms come on suddenly. Only about 25 percent of people who are diagnosed with Lyme disease get the characteristic "bull's eye" rash.
    • If you do notice symptoms, call your doctor right away. Symptoms treated early are less likely to make any long-term impact.
    • Your provider may choose to treat you for tick-borne disease or have you tested for tick-borne illness or both. As always, the test for tick-borne illnesses requires a blood draw at a lab.

    By following your doctor’s instructions and taking any prescriptions as directed, you will very likely feel better within just a few days. Once you are feeling better, resume all of your tick-bite prevention efforts. Having had a tick-borne illness once does not protect you from being infected again!

    Donna Barron, RN, is the infection preventionist at Southwestern Vermont Medical Center, part of Southwestern Vermont Health Care, in Bennington.

    Print
    10653
    Tags: ticks tick tick-borne disease

    Theme picker

    Theme picker

    MORE NEWS

    Theme picker

    VIEW ALL

    Our Services

    PARTNERSHIP IS POWERFUL MEDICINE

    A commitment to excellence and a patient-centered approach sets Southwestern Vermont Health Care apart.

     Cancer Care
     Orthopedics
     Emergency
     Maternity
     Primary Care
     ExpressCare
     Cardiology
     Rehab & Residential Care
    View All Services

    Theme picker

    Theme picker

    Theme picker

    VIEW ALL