Our Services

Heart Health Services

Your physician, partnering with outstanding Cardiologists and Cardiothoracic Surgeons on the CHRISTUS St. Michael Health System’s medical staff provide you with forefront heart health services and the kind of personal care that keeps you close to home. Heart care. Right here.

Diagnostic Services

Cardiac Catheterization Suites (Cath Lab)
Cardiac catheterization locates any clogged or narrowed places in the coronary arteries to determine how well the heart muscle and valves function. During a cardiac catheterization, a thin, flexible tube called a catheter is inserted into an artery. Dye is then injected through the catheter into the coronary arteries and the heart. With the help of specialized x-ray equipment, the cardiologist can watch the heart functioning on a monitor.

• Vascular Lab: Low and non-invasive Heart Imaging.
• Three Echocardiogram Units: Provide “heart sonograms” to show a heart’s size, structure and movement.
• Laser Doppler Imager (LDI): Displays blood flow through the heart.
• Two vascular sonogram units: Provide a picture of blood flow through major arteries and veins.
• Nuclear Cardiac Stress Testing: Uses exercise (treadmill walking) or medications to increase the workload of the heart. Patient reactions to the added stress on the heart are closely monitored and recorded. Nuclear cardiac stress tests are used to evaluate blood flow to the heart muscle at rest and at stress, and/or to determine heart muscle damage after a heart attack.

Cardiac Calcium Scoring
A simple outpatient imaging test, performed at our outpatient Imaging Center, can identify conditions that are linked to the increased likelihood of heart disease. Called cardiac calcium scoring, this procedure uses a multi-slice CT scanner (64-slice) and takes around five minutes to conduct. The results are read by a board-certified radiologist and then sent to you and your physician. Click here for more information about Cardiac Calcium Scoring.

Treatment Services

Two Cardiac Catheterization Suite (Cath Lab)
Patients can receive treatment in a number of ways:

• Angioplasties—inflating a tiny balloon within an artery to compress and break up blockages to allow normal blood flow,
• Stents—a tiny metal mesh tube inserted during angioplasty to hold open the artery and help permanently maintain blood flow,
• Drug alluding stents—stents treated with medications that help deter scar tissue build up and prevent the recurrence of a blockage.

The Cath Lab also allows for the implantation of small, heart managing devices such as:

• Permanent pacemakers—devices that provide electrical stimuli to cause a heart beat during periods when the natural heartbeat is inappropriately slow or absent.
• Implantable cardioverter-defribrillators or ICDs—devices that track your heart rhythm and slow down or halt excessively rapid heart rates that can cause cardiac arrest.

Dedicated Heart Surgical Team
Dedicated cardiothoracic surgeons, anesthesiologists, and full open heart surgical teams who work exclusively in heart treatment services such as:

• Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery: A procedure used to restore normal blood flow when the coronary arteries become lined with fatty deposits, restricting blood flow to the heart. Bypass surgery provides an alternate route for the blood to flow through, allowing it to bypass the narrowed or blocked areas of the arteries.
  During the operation, a heart-lung machine takes over the function of the heart and lungs and the heart is temporarily stopped. A short length of vein is removed from another area of the body. Sections of the vein are sewn to the main artery of the heart, and to a point below the blockage.
• “Off Pumps” Bypass Surgery: Coronary artery bypass surgery is performed without stopping the patient’s heart.
• Valve Replacement/Repair Surgery: Open heart surgery that repairs or replaces a damaged heart valve (the “gateways” that keep blood pumping in the right direction to and from the heart) with either a mechanical or biological valve.
• Endoscopic Vein Harvesting: Available for selected patients, this procedure uses an endoscope, a special instrument used to view the inside of a hollow area. The endoscope is connected to a video camera and inserted through one to three small incisions in the leg. The endoscope is used to view the saphenous vein inside the leg and allows the surgeon to remove the vein with minimal stress to the leg. Every surgical patient is unique, and your surgical team will recommend the best procedure for you and your condition.
• Other Vascular Surgery Services: Such as Carotid Endarterectomies—A surgical procedure in which fatty deposits are removed from one of the carotid arteries, two main arteries in the neck supplying blood to the brain.

Cardiac Care Recovery

• RNs on the Heart Care Team: are all Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) certified. Each unit listed is staffed with trained RNs specializing in the immediate post-surgical recovery stage.
• Coronary Care Unit (CCU): Eight beds for immediate treatment of acute or suspected myocardial infarction, stent, cath and angioplasty recovery, and treatment of congestive heart failure.
• CVICU (Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit): Eight beds for post coronary and vascular surgery patients.
• Progressive Care Unit (PCU): Progressive Step Down Care Unit consisting of 32 telemetry beds, with a focus on diagnostic testing, education and rehabilitation prior to discharge.
  • The recovery team also consists of a Physical Therapist, Dietician, and Case Manager dedicated to helping restore cardiac patients to optimal levels of physical, psychological, social and vocational abilities.

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