Mercy’s Shaw Heart and Vascular Center is state-of-the-art, providing innovative medical care combined with personalized service from our team of highly-trained medical professionals. Shaw Heart offers comprehensive services from diagnostic procedures to non-surgical interventions and cardiac rehabilitation.
Patients across the region put their trust in us to deliver world-class care right here at home. Shaw Heart’s national Accreditation for Cardiovascular Excellence is a strong warranty that our services meet the highest possible standards of care.
Why Choose Mercy’s Shaw Heart Center?
Personalized Care
- At Shaw Heart, we put patients first
- We provide personalized care to each of our patients
World-class Services
- Shaw Heart is among top U.S. facilities certified by the national Accreditation for Cardiovascular Excellence (ACE)
- Advanced imaging and diagnostics
- Around-the-clock emergency and inpatient care
- Use of angioplasty (Percutaneous Coronary Intervention, PCI) to treat a wide range of heart diseases and conditions
- Advanced treatments for heart attack patients
- Minimally invasive interventional options
- Innovative procedures include angioplasty to restore circulation to extremities to avoid amputation typically among diabetics
- Our cardiac rehabilitation team includes all the experts needed to meet your needs and help oversee your return to health
Experienced Medical Team
- Our medical team is experienced and highly-skilled
- Lead members of our team are board certified in multiple disciplines
- We have a relentless focus on quality, efficiency and patient safety
- Meeting Our Community Needs
- We continue to expand our services at Shaw Heart to meet the community’s growing needs
Providing cutting-edge, personalized care…close to home.
SAVING LIMBS AND SAVING LIVES
All too often the symptoms of PAD progress to a point where a patient is told his or her only option is amputation. But in Southern Oregon, the Shaw Heart and Vascular Center has made great strides to ensure amputation is only a treatment of last resort, not a first option.
At Shaw Heart and Vascular Center, many patients originally considered for amputation are being treated with angioplasty, an effective non- surgical vessel-opening procedure.
Many people are familiar with angioplasty and stenting for narrowed heart arteries but are not aware of how effective, comfortable and relatively safe this procedure can be when applied in other circulations.
Instead of facing a scalpel and the loss of a toe, foot or entire lower leg, Shaw Heart and Vascular Center patients are treated using a catheter that is threaded through a vessel to the point of blockage. A tiny balloon at the tip of the catheter is inflated to clear the blockage and restore blood flow. A stent is often left in place to keep the vessel open.
Rather than enduring amputation and that procedure’s dramatically life-altering, and often life-threatening consequences, Shaw Heart patients often achieve relief from their PAD symptoms generally without even needing an overnight hospital stay. Many are up and walking the same afternoon and back at work in just a few days.
The benefits of treating PAD with angioplasty go beyond just saving a limb. The procedure can also be lifesaving. Some 25 percent of people with below-the-knee amputations die within a year, half within three years. Tragically, many of these amputations could be avoided. Amputation is a permanent ‘solution’ to a potentially temporary problem that can be avoidable using new techniques and an angiogram.
An angiogram is an X-ray study that enables physicians to visualize blood vessels and blood flow and determine precisely where a blockage is located. In the absence of an angiogram, an initial amputation of a toe, for example, may not even relieve the patient’s issue, leading to the amputation of another toe, then possibly the entire foot, and then higher up the leg until wound healing can occur. Statistically, typically fewer than 25 percent of patients have an angigram prior to an amputation. But not in Douglas County. Patients in our community benefit from a strong relationship with surgeons who understand that any patient who is being considered for amputation for PAD should first have an angiogram and will refer to the Shaw Heart and Vascular Center. Through this simple step many patients have been identified whose limbs, and sometimes lives, have been saved through a procedure performed many times daily at Shaw Heart and Vascular Center.
To learn more about Shaw Heart and Vascular Center’s Saving Limbs procedure, call 541-677-1555
Fewer than 25 percent of patients who have had a non-traumatic amputation have had an angiogram in advance,” Dr. Feldman says. “Without this information it is difficult to be certain that amputation is the only available, or the best, treatment option.
An angiogram is an X-ray study that enables physicians to visualize blood vessels and blood flow and determine precisely where a blockage is located. In the absence of an angiogram, an initial amputation of a toe, for example, may not even relieve the patient’s, leading to the amputation of another toe, then possibly the entire foot, and then higher up the leg until wound healing can occur.”
“Amputation is a permanent ‘solution’ to a potentially temporary problem”, Dr. Feldman says. “It is surprising how often it is avoidable.”
“Fortunately in our community we have cultivated good relationships with our surgeons and they understand that any patient who is being considered for amputation for PAD should first have an angiogram,” he says. “Through this simple step we have been able to identify many patients whose limbs, and sometimes lives, we can save through a procedure that we perform many times daily at Shaw Heart and Vascular Center.”
ACCREDITATION
Shaw Heart: First in Pacific Northwest to receive national Accreditation for Cardiovascular Excellence (ACE)
Only the nation’s top facilities meeting the highest standards of care are certified by ACE
Shaw Heart’s state-of-the-art care is backed by the national Accreditation for Cardiovascular Excellence (ACE). Currently only 40 facilities in the U.S. are accredited by ACE. Shaw Heart is the first in Oregon and the Pacific Northwest to receive the national certification.
About our ACE certification…
- Shaw Heart’s services were measured against nationally-accepted standards for the highest quality of heart and vascular care in the nation
- Top-to-bottom, independent evaluation conducted by national experts included on-site inspections, personal interviews and a comprehensive assessment of practices and procedures and patient outcomes
- Shaw’s ACE covers both cardiac catheterization (CC) and percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) used to treat a wide range of heart diseases and conditions
- ACE conducts ongoing monitoring of Shaw Heart and its services to renew its accreditation. More details can be found at cvexcel.org