Baptist Medical Center Beaches

Cardiology Diagnostics and Cardiac Rehabilitation.

Patients at Baptist Beaches benefit from being able to receive a full spectrum of non-invasive diagnostic cardiology and cardiac rehabilitative services close to home. Baptist Beaches is also one of only a few accredited Chest Pain Centers, which means patients who come to the Emergency Center with chest pain receive the fastest diagnostic and therapeutic interventions for coronary blockages possible.

Using a rapid diagnosis and decision-making protocol, patients are diagnosed and stabilized at Baptist Beaches.  For those who need crucial cardiac interventions, Baptist Beaches provides a direct link to the world-class heart surgeons at Baptist Medical Center. These patients are triaged then quickly transferred, with seamless coordination between hospitals. Following treatment, follow-up care can be completed close to home at Baptist Beaches.

Baptist Medical Center, which includes the state-of-the-art Baptist Heart Hospital, has a wide range of interventional cardiology services and cardiac surgery capabilities. The Chest Pain Center strives for an ER-to-procedure time of 90 minutes or less. As many Baptist Beaches patients will tell you, this highly choreographed, precision process works. Please read Ponte Vedra beach resident Peter Ghiloni’s story to understand this first-hand.

In addition to Baptist’s expertise in managing cardiovascular disease, we also provide an array of cutting-edge testing to help prevent the disease. Through our Echo Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) high-level image digital imaging analysis, we help make cardiac tests as clear, convenient and stress free as possible. Baptist Beaches also offers centralized scheduling, which provides faster arrangement of outpatient exams and helps ensure more efficient and organized patient care. Cardiac testing procedures provided at Baptist Beaches include:

• 24-hour Cardiac Holter Monitoring
• Electrocardiograms
• Echocardiograms
• Cardiac Stress Testing
• Complete Pulmonary Function Testing
• Fiber-optic Bronchoscopy
• Blood Gas Analysis

Baptist Beaches also offers comprehensive cardiac rehabilitation following heart attacks, bypass surgery, stent placements (small mesh tubes used to open arteries), angioplasty, vascular surgery or angina. This outpatient program is a medically supervised continuum of services with a team of multidisciplinary providers, including cardiac nurses, exercise specialists, dieticians and psychologists. Through a series of educational classes and a highly individualized exercise prescription, patients are able to increase their strength, endurance and activity levels while learning to modify risk factors to prevent further cardiac problems.