High-quality Cardiovascular Care No Matter Where You Live in Maine
Maine is a beautiful state with rocky coastlines, majestic mountains, vast forestlands, and thousands of lakes, rivers, and streams to explore. However, some of the most beautiful areas are also the most rural, away from urban centers and larger hospitals. When you’re having a significant cardiovascular event, every second counts. With more than 50% of Maine’s population living in rural areas, Northern Light Health is delivering high-quality care to Mainers no matter where you live.
The Northern Light cardiovascular care team makes the most of our integrated healthcare system to create comprehensive and standardized cardiovascular care that treats patients the same wherever you are — from Portland to Presque Isle and Greenville to Blue Hill.
What is Cardiovascular Disease?
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is an umbrella category that includes coronary artery disease, cerebrovascular disease, and peripheral vascular disease. In coronary artery disease (sometimes referred to as CAD), the arteries that feed the heart become obstructed over time with fatty deposits and plaques that can eventually become obstructive and lead to symptoms like chest pain and medical events like a heart attack. Cerebrovascular disease is a similar process but involves the blood vessels of the head and neck. Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) is again a similar process and involves the major blood vessels that supply the legs and abdominal organs.
At Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center, we’re at the forefront of Cardiovascular Care, right where your heart belongs. Whether you need the services of Northern Light Cardiology or the expertise of one of our surgeons from Northern Light Cardiothoracic Surgery, we believe your heart deserves the best care.
Not all medical institutions have highly-experienced cardiovascular physicians and the latest technologies to diagnose and treat heart disease. But we do. For more than 40 years, we have been dedicated to the heart health of the people of Maine. Our highly-experienced cardiovascular physicians and advanced technologies are here for one reason: your heart.
Northern Light Cardiology is home to physicians and surgeons who have trained at the leading cardiac centers in the world and provide the most up-to-date surgical techniques available anywhere. In fact, we perform more than 120,000 cardiac procedures and tests each year, and our many services include various in-house as well as outreach clinics across eastern, central, and northern Maine.
Advanced Surgical Solutions for Your Heart
At Northern Light Cardiothoracic Surgery, our accomplished surgeons utilize the most advanced surgical techniques for diseases of the heart, lungs, esophagus, mediastinum, thoracic aorta, diaphragm, and chest wall. Committed to raising quality through innovation, we use minimally invasive approaches and procedures whenever possible, including our state-of-the-art surgical robot. We are the only hospital in Maine to offer esophogectomies using minimally invasive robotic surgery technology.
In short, our mission is to deliver the highest quality, expert care with compassion and consideration, and our goal is to give our best to every patient, every time, and make healthcare work for you.
Your Heart, Your Health: Managing Risk Factors
Some of the major risk factors for cardiovascular disease include smoking, overweight and obesity, an unhealthy diet, a lack of exercise and physical activity, high cholesterol and blood pressure, and diabetes. The good news is that you have the ability to change some or possibly all of these risk factors for cardiovascular disease.
Why is Cardiovascular Care So Important in Maine?
Heart disease is the second leading cause of death in Maine and our population is the oldest in the country. These statistics underscore an important need that we recognized when we decided to create a systemwide cardiovascular service line in 2013. Robert Hoffmann, MD, former director, cardiovascular service line, shares, “Service lines are organized around a disease entity such as heart disease. You’re trying to develop an organized approach to treating the disease across an entire system such as inpatient care, outpatient care, homecare, emergency care, and long-term care.”
Dr. Hoffmann is a retired cardiologist who served as chairman to the working group that researched, developed, and implemented the cardiovascular service line. It was a methodical process that took two years to start showing and measuring results. “We went on the road and visited with every hospital and met clinical people and administrative people at the hospitals just to learn what they were doing, to see if they had any issues, and to tell them what we were doing,” explains Dr. Hoffmann. All that work culminated with a new organizational structure.
The cardiovascular service line is governed by a leadership council made up of cardiac and vascular physicians and cardiovascular administrators from across the system. This council is developing treatment and performance standards and quality measures and meets to review them. Those measures are updated regularly and monitored through a quality dashboard, which is a web-based application for quality reporting that is integrated into our Electronic Health Record (EHR). “What we’d like to think is that when someone has a heart problem, they can go to any one of our system hospitals or outpatient settings and receive the same quality of care wherever they are.”
When someone has a heart problem, they can go to any one of our system hospitals or outpatient settings and receive the same quality of care wherever they are.
- Robert Hoffmann, MD, former Director, Cardiovascular Service Line
Why Does Standardizing Care Matter for Cardiovascular Health?
Northern Light Health has over 12,000 employees working in hospitals, pharmacies, homecare agencies, emergency air and ground transport, and more. We have developed treatment standards across the continuum of care and track 14 quality measures for everything from statins to readmission rates.
"I have never had so much attention before, and everybody worked together like a well-oiled machine. They were so caring and sincere." - Nancy Lounsbury, Northern Light Mercy Hospital heart failure patient
How do you measure quality of care?
Discharge from the hospital after surgery means you are doing well, and will continue to get better at home. Sometimes readmission to the hospital occurs.
Success in the quality of your care can be measured by readmission rates. The industry goal for readmission is about 15%.
The percent of patients returning to the hospital (readmitted) at Northern Light Health is consistently low.
What is the Hub and Spokes Model of Care?
Northern Light Health is a system with many different hospitals of varying sizes, geographic locations, and capabilities from critical access hospitals to a tertiary care facility.
At the center or “hub” of our cardiovascular service line is Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center, a tertiary care facility that can provide the most sophisticated care for certain conditions. Our physicians and surgeons have trained at the leading cardiac centers in the world and provide the most up-to-date surgical techniques available anywhere.
We perform more than 75,000 cardiac procedures and tests each year. Northern Light EMMC houses our Structural Heart Program and our team of cardiovascular and cardiothoracic surgeons.
We also have several medium-sized hospitals, which for standard cardiology, can provide the same high level of care as Northern Light EMMC, except for specialized procedures that can only be done in a tertiary care center.
“Whether you go to Northern Light AR Gould Hospital, Sebasticook Valley Hospital, Mercy Hospital, Maine Coast, or EMMC for an atrial fibrillation visit, you’re going to get the same care,” explains Alan Jansujwicz, MD, medical director, Northern Light Cardiovascular Service Line.
Northern Light Cardiovascular Care employs two to three highly skilled cardiologists in each of these regional hub facilities that support the smaller critical access hospitals in their region. These physicians can provide the same high level of standardized care for most conditions.
Dr. Jansujwicz adds, “If your one of the small percentage of patients that need advanced care, you may go to Northern Light EMMC, but you can receive your follow up care at the hospital that is close to home.”
Cardiovascular and Cardiothoracic Surgery
At Northern Light Cardiothoracic Surgery, our accomplished surgeons use the most advanced surgical techniques for diseases of the heart, lungs, esophagus, mediastinum, thoracic aorta, diaphragm, and chest wall.
Committed to raising quality through innovation, we use minimally invasive approaches and procedures whenever possible, including our state-of-the-art DaVinci surgical robot. Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center is the only hospital in Maine to offer minimally invasive esophagectomies using surgical robotic technology. Our mission is to deliver the highest quality, expert care with compassion and consideration, and our goal is to give our best to every patient, every time, and make healthcare work for our patients.
Minimally-Invasive Treatments Offered by Northern Light Cardiovascular Care?
Watchman
This device offers an alternative to the lifelong use of warfarin for people with atrial fibrillation not caused by a heart valve problem. This permanent heart implant effectively reduces the risk of stroke — without the risk of bleeding that can come with the long-term use of warfarin, the most common blood thinner. In a clinical trial, nine out of ten people were able to stop taking warfarin just 45 days after the Watchman procedure. Click here for more information.
MitraClip
Transcatheter mitral valve repair is catheter-based technology that uses a small clip attached to the mitral valve to treat mitral regurgitation, which is when blood leaks back into the heart through the mitral valve. MitraClip allows the mitral valve to close more completely, helping to restore normal blood flow through the heart. It’s a less invasive treatment option for patients who are not good candidates for surgery. Click here for more information.
TAVR
Transcatheter aortic valve replacement is a catheter-based technology that inserts a replacement aortic valve while the heart is still beating. TAVR eliminates the need for an incision in the chest wall, relying instead on a minimally invasive approach. This makes the use of a heart-lung bypass machine unnecessary and provides a shorter, more comfortable recovery period when compared to a surgical aortic valve replacement. Click here for more information.
ASD/PFO Closure
Atrial septal defect (ASD) closure and patent foramen ovale (PFO) closure are other minimally invasive catheter-based procedures that use a small, mesh, clam-shell-like device to seal abnormal communications between the chambers of the heart. ASD closure is used to seal congenital defects in the heart’s septum that can lead to pulmonary hypertension and heart failure. PFO closure, used more commonly, seals a remnant channel in the heart’s septum that in some patients can increase the risk of stroke. In recent years, there has been increasing evidence that PFO closure is more effective than blood thinners alone in preventing recurrent stroke in a younger patient with no other obvious cause. Click here for more information.
Atrial Fibrillation (AFib)
Northern Light Health wants every patient to get the full value of our medical care. Successfully treating atrial fibrillation (AFib) requires specialized treatments, careful monitoring and lifestyle changes. We know following your personalized treatment plan can seem overwhelming, especially for patients with other conditions or stress factors. That is why we provide atrial fibrillation patients with specially trained care providers. Just one more way Northern Light Health is by your side, every step of the way.
Click here for more information.