What Sets Our Heart Care Apart

Lehigh Valley Health Network started the first open-heart surgery program in the region more than 30 years ago. Today, we’re one of U.S. News & World Report’s “America’s Best Hospitals” for heart care and heart surgery. Here’s why:

• Our heart program is the third largest in Pennsylvania. Specialists at our Regional Heart Center perform thousands of surgeries, cardiac catheterizations, angioplasties and procedures for electrical problems of the heart every year. The fact that we care for such a large number of people means our doctors have the experience needed to achieve the best results.

• We have the highest heart attack survival rate in the country according to government data published in  USA TODAY on Aug. 20, 2008 . Patients suffering a heart attack are more likely to survive if they come to Lehigh Valley Hospital because of our fast care for heart attacks program (MI Alert for Heart Attacks). It consistently saves the lives of patients having a heart attack by opening their blocked arteries in less then 90 minutes, the “gold standard” for heart attack care.

• Digital cardiac catheterization labs provide invasive cardiologists the clearest possible images during diagnostic tests that look for blocked or narrowed arteries near your heart.

• Our Center for Advanced Heart Failure is the only facility in the region under the medical direction of a heart failure specialist. All of the center’s physicians and nurses are specialists in treating the complex health issues associated with heart failure.

• Critical patients are monitored by an extra set of eyes after heart surgery. In our off-site advanced intensive care unit (aICU), specially-educated critical care physicians (tele-intensivists) use high-tech video, audio and electronic charting equipment to constantly watch patients. Tele-intensivists inform bedside doctors and nurses when a patient needs quick care.

• We are the only regional hospital performing laser cardiac lead removal. This procedure allows surgeons to safely remove the tiny wires that connect a pacemaker or implantable defibrillator to the heart.

• We are specially educated to care for a woman’s heart. Heart Help for Women is a program designed to teach you the risk factors for heart disease, the symptoms of a heart attack and the importance of calling 9-1-1 when they arise, and how to work with your doctors to manage your risk factors and get appropriate diagnostic testing and treatment.

• We are one of the first hospitals in the nation to use body-cooling technology called Arctic Sun. When a serious heart attack stops the heart from sending oxygen to the brain, Arctic Sun lowers the body’s core temperature to 91 degrees, slowing metabolism and preventing dangerous swelling.

The Regional Heart Center is located at Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest in Allentown, Pa., and Lehigh Valley Hospital-Muhlenberg in Bethlehem, Pa. Whatever your heart-related problem–heart attack, congestive heart failure, blocked arteries, valve problems or heart rhythm disorder–the Regional Heart Center’s doctors and staff have the experience to provide you the best possible heart care.

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