Nationally Recognized Cardiovascular Care in Your Neighborhood

By Meredith Knight | Photos by
Kenny Richard Photography

When you or someone you love is experiencing a
cardiovascular emergency, you want an experienced heart health team you can
trust. If you live in Denton or surrounding communities, an
award-winning cardiovascular hospital is close to home and offers nationally
recognized medical expertise to count on. After all, it is all they do
24-7.

Baylor Scott & White The Heart Hospital – Denton*, part of
the Baylor Scott & White The Heart Hospital family, has become the
largest heart surgery program in the Denton region. Throughout its 10 years
in the Denton community, the hospital has risen to become a nationally
recognized and awarded hospital for cardiovascular surgical and
interventional care that is deeply rooted in a culture of service excellence
and quality.

“Our mission is to provide safe, quality, compassionate care to
our guests,” stated Conrad Park, MD, chief medical officer at Baylor Scott
& White Heart – Denton. The hospital offers a continuum of cardiology
care that encompasses a multispecialty cardiovascular clinic and a range of
surgical and non-invasive offerings. Specifically, the hospital’s services
include comprehensive diagnostic capabilities, open heart and valve surgery,
and minimally invasive and catheter-based interventional cardiac and vascular
procedures.

Dr. Park added, “The majority of our coronary bypass graft (CABG)
surgeries are done ‘off-pump’—without the use of a heart-lung bypass machine
— also known as ‘beating heart surgery.’ In the hands of the surgeons on our
medical staff experienced in ‘off-pump’ bypass surgery — doing more than 90%
of their bypass surgeries as off-pump — we see typical patient benefits such
as a lesser need for blood transfusion, shorter length of hospital stay, and
less postoperative morbidity in select high-risk groups.”

Top-Rated Patient Care

From Becker’s “Best Hospital” Women’s Choice Award to being
awarded the highest star ratings in two categories from The Society of
Thoracic Surgeons (STS)**, the hospital is dedicated to the highest quality
patient care and outcomes. “Excellence, innovation, and passion succinctly
describe who we are and how we serve, and this trusted, risk-adjusted
analysis by the STS, the leading cardiac surgery program quality benchmark,
is a testament to our commitment to transparency and excellence,” said Mark
Valentine, president, Baylor Scott & White The Heart Hospitals –
Plano, Denton, and McKinney. Dr. Park added, “These awards are possible due to
our deep collaboration with our sister hospitals in Plano and McKinney and
the heart team approach, which brings together the necessary surgical and
cardiology subspecialties for the betterment of patient care
delivery.”

Innovative Services

The catheterization specialists on the medical staff at Baylor
Scott & White Heart – Denton are leaders in innovative techniques and
approaches. For example, the Hospital was the first in the Denton area to
offer Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR), a minimally invasive
procedure which replaces a diseased aortic valve with only a small incision
and no open-heart surgery. The benefits include improving the heart’s ability
to pump blood and improving patients’ functional status usually with minimal
bleeding, minimal scarring, and quicker, less painful
recovery.

“This is just one example of the advanced structural heart
interventions and other surgical procedures our hospital is providing in this
area,” Dr. Park said. “For patients with atrial fibrillation, we offer
electrical ablation procedures and implantation of devices to lessen the
possibility of clot formation and subsequent stroke. We have advanced
imaging, CT scans, and heart flow studies. Our new multidisciplinary
cardiovascular clinic functions like an air traffic controller evaluating
patients then directing them to our specialized structural heart clinic,
wound care clinic, rhythm clinic, or heart failure clinic, coordinating their
care, managing, and directing them.”

Community-Mindedness

“When I moved to Denton in 1985, there was no cardiovascular
program in this area,” Dr. Park said. “Patients had to travel to Dallas for
that type of care. The vision was to provide top-quality cardiovascular care
right in our community. We collaborated with Baylor Scott & White
Health to develop the Heart Hospitals and provide the excellent patient
experience they’re known for to our Denton neighbors and friends. We have
been able to watch our Denton hospital grow into a nationally recognized
cardiovascular hospital with advanced treatments and service offerings,
including The Heart Hospital Cardiovascular Clinic. This new multispecialty
clinic is specially designed to allow patients to access cardiologists on our
medical staff for cardiology services and screenings. Additionally, we take
part in several community events and work with not for profits like Living
for Zachary, where we offer cardiovascular screenings for youths involved in
athletics. These initiatives and more keep us focused on serving our
community, our home.”

To learn more, please visit bswhealth.com/heartdenton.

*Joint
Ownership with Physicians. Physicians provide clinical services as members of
the medical staff at one of BSWH’s subsidiary, community or affiliated
medical centers and do not provide clinical services as employees or agents
of those medical centers or
BSWH.

**STS
Three Star Rating Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting (CABG) and Aortic Valve
Replacement plus CABG.