Why Choose CHI St. Vincent Heart Institute?
Access
At CHI St. Vincent Heart Institute, you have access to the state’s largest and most diverse network of heart specialists. And we are close to home with services in Little Rock, North Little Rock, Hot Springs, Searcy and Conway and more than 25 community locations.
It’s All About You
We are leading the way in heart care, shifting the focus from procedure to program, from individual doctor to a team of specialists and primary care, from disease to whole-person wellness. Our team includes CHI St. Vincent Heart Clinic Arkansas (the state's largest cardiology group) as well as heart surgeons in Little Rock and Hot Springs. From aggressive diagnostic routines to the latest surgical procedures to heart health education, we offer comprehensive care close to home.
Learn about our care for heart disease. Hear our patient stories.
Latest Treatments and Technology for Heart Disease
We use the latest treatments for all forms of heart disease -- from common problems to rare or life-threatening conditions. Whether you've been referred for diagnostic testing, cardiac treatment or disease management, your best interests are at the heart of every medical recommendation we make and care option we provide.
With access to 10 cath lab procedure rooms, 6 CV operating rooms, 40 dedicated cardiology critical care beds and over 60 telemetry beds the CHI St Vincent Heart Institute has the resources to care for a variety of patients. Our support team includes advanced practice providers, perfusionists, nurses, respiratory therapists, pharmacists, physical therapists, social workers, and dietitians. With this breadth of specialties we our patients get comprehensive care tailored their individual health concerns and wellbeing. Our group of more than 50 heart specialits bring the diversity necessary to treat each patient's specific condition.
ACE Accredited Cardiac Cath Labs
The cardiac cath labs at CHI St Vincent Infirmary and CHI St Vincent North are the first 2 ACE accredited cath labs in the state of Arkansas, with the cath lab at the Infirmary also holding chest pain accreditation. We see a multitude of procedures including
- Cardiac catheterization (cardiac cath or heart cath) is a procedure to examine how well your heart is working.
- Stenting - a procedure used to open clogged heart arteries
- CTO - minimally invasive technique used to treat patients with chronic total occlusion (CTO), or complete blockages, of the coronary arteries.
- EP studies and ablations - used to treat heart arrhythmia
We bring together the state’s largest group of cardiologists with cardiothoracic surgeons and critical care intensivists to provide comprehensive care to our patients.
Hot Springs Heart Center provides comprehensive services and the latest technology in one convenient location. CHI St. Vincent Hot Springs has received the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines® Target: Stroke Honor Roll Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award. The award recognizes the hospital’s commitment to ensuring stroke patients receive the most appropriate treatment according to nationally recognized, research-based guidelines based on the latest scientific evidence.
CHI St. Vincent Infirmary has been ranked since 2012 by U.S. News & World Report as a top regional hospital by achieving high performing status for heart-related categories. We are one of two Arkansas hospitals, and fewer than 20 in the United States to receive Ace Accreditation for Cardiac Excellence for our cath labs. We do more than 3,000 catheterizations a year. Our Jack Stephens Heart Unit offers exceptional service and amenities.
CHI St. Vincent has received the American Heart Association’s Mission: Lifeline® Gold Receiving Quality Achievement Award for implementing specific quality improvement measures for the treatment of patients who suffer severe heart attacks. The CHI St. Vincent Infirmary in Little Rock earned the award for meeting specific criteria and standards of performance for quick, appropriate treatment through emergency procedures to re-establish blood flow to blocked arteries in heart attack patients coming into the hospital directly or by transfer from another facility.
CHI St. Vincent North hospital’s heart services include a STEMI program that provides life-saving treatment for patients experiencing a heart attack.
CHI St. Vincent Morrilton also has advanced emergency capabilities to diagnosis heart problems.
Our partners also include with Conway Regional Medical Center and Unity Health – White County Medical Center where our cardiologists take care of patients close to home.
Accreditations for Excellence in Heart Care
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Awards
CHI St. Vincent Adopts Advanced Communication System for Heart Attack, Stroke and other Trauma Patient Care
CHI St. Vincent became the first health system in Arkansas to implement the full suite of Pulsara communication capabilities for coordinated teams to dramatically improve responses for every patient type, including ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction (STEMI) heart attacks, stroke and other trauma care scenarios. Pulsara is a telehealth and communication platform that enables HIPAA compliant, dynamic networked communications between EMS, hospitals and other healthcare providers for any patient event. Following successful Arkansas trials at multiple hospitals that saw average Door-to-Device treatment time for STEMI patients reduced by 19-percent, allowing cardiologists to get patient blood vessels reopened faster, the Arkansas STEMI Advisory Council proposed that healthcare services begin adopting Pulsara statewide in April 2020.
“This is a major step forward in resolving barriers to patient care, especially for patients suffering from this very serious type of heart attack, a leading cause of death in Arkansas,” said CHI St. Vincent Heart Institute Cardiologist Dr. Aravind Rao, who served as chair of the Arkansas STEMI Advisory Council for 2018 and 2019. “In these life or death situations, every moment counts. Now this unified communications stream that begins before patients reach the hospital with EMS and allows our emergency teams to begin diagnosing and preparing to receive the patient properly long before they reach our door will allow us to save even more lives.”
CHI St. Vincent is working to set the precedent of using all of the patient care and coordination resources available through Pulsara, not only those focused on STEMI care. The telehealth and communications platform allows ambulance services and hospitals to create multi-disciplinary, coordinated teams focused on a patient’s care. Among other capabilities, the mobile technology allows dynamic, on-the-fly communication between any member of the care team regardless of their location or the organization for which they work. Pulsara also enables live video calling for medical teams to observe a patient in the field and real-time updates that are HIPAA compliant so that when one person updates blood pressure or provides ECG data from the field, everyone on the team sees it at once.
“Prior to Pulsara, a text or a page was the only communication most of our team would receive, not even a patient name due to HIPPA compliance. Now every communication is laden with information, including contact numbers, audio and visual recordings, snapshots of EKGs and messaging ability,” said CHI St. Vincent Heart Institute AMI Quality Management Coordinator DeeDee Moline, BSN, RN, who also serves on the Arkansas STEMI Advisory Council. “This now allows us to ask questions and communicate as a unified and informed team quickly and effectively. This level of advanced communication significantly improves the level of care for patients suffering an acute heart attack. We quickly realized the value and implications of this coordination can reach far beyond our heart patients alone.”
The full adoption of the Pulsara telehealth and communications technology is part of CHI St. Vincent’s ongoing commitment to improving patient care and outcomes for all Arkansans, including access to the latest technology, advanced techniques and treatments. U.S. News & World Report recognized CHI St. Vincent Infirmary as the best hospital in Arkansas for cardiology and heart surgery in its 2020–21 Best Hospital Rankings. The CHI St. Vincent Heart Institute also recently received two different three star ratings for patient care and outcomes from The Society of Thoracic Surgeons, the highest category of quality the system bestows.