Cardiology services offered at David Grant USAF Medical Center have made numerous advances over the last decade. With increased emphasis placed on non-invasive cardiology procedures and with imaging techniques done on an outpatient basis, DGMC uses some of the latest technology in the evaluation and treatment of heart diseases while providing personal and compassionate care.
Services provided at DGMC include electrocardiography, stress testing, cardiac event monitoring, and digital three-dimensional cardiac ultrasound. DGMC's newest service is the transesophageal echocardiography procedure, which allows the cardiologist a closer and clear visualization of the heart using a fiber optic endoscope.
DGMC's Cardiology Services department is staffed with:
- Two adult and one pediatric cardiologist;
- Four cardiopulmonary technologists;
- Two aerospace medical journeymen, and;
- Two nurses who help in the daily operation of the section, which sees an average of about 900 patient procedures and encounters per month.
In 2008, DGMC's Cardiology Services department acquired a General Electric Vivid i echocardiograph, a high resolution, portable heart imaging machine. This $150,000 apparatus, intended for TRICARE/TriWest beneficiaries within the medical treatment facility, has also been used and proven its advanced capabilities around the globe on Air Force humanitarian missions where a 25-person Travis medical team treated over 700 patients a day in Guatemala.
One of the patient-centered initiatives within the cardiology services is the creation of the Heart Failure clinic. DGMC is currently following approximately 40 heart failure patients and continue to take new referrals. This clinic offers the patient direct access and timely response to their chronic and potentially life-threatening medical condition. This allows us to make changes in the patient's management to prevent worsening of their symptoms and ultimately prevent re-hospitalization.
Yet another high profile service within DGMC's Cardiology clinic is the implantation and follow-up of pacemakers and defibrillators. Patients with life threatening heart rhythms can receive cutting-edge devices that not only may prove to prolong their life through immediate recognition and treatment of arrhythmias, but will also improve their quality of life. The device clinic follows over 200 patients as DGMC cardiologists continue to save lives with new implants each week.
High-risk cardiac inpatients admitted to DGMC are also monitored via telemetry. 24-48 hour continuous heart monitoring is staffed by a critical care Aerospace Medical Services journeyman who is responsible for providing minute-by-minute oversight of the telemetry station. They also readily alert the Advanced Cardiac Life Support Team ("Code Blue" team) in case of intra-hospital emergency.