Draft for discussion. No build date implied.
About this demo

A proof of concept of the Baptist Health Heart and Vascular Care line on baptisthealthal.com and every page it links to, built from our page drafts on the service line, facility and health library templates, with placeholder photos, doctors, locations and articles. It uses no built components and implies no build date. Medical copy is a draft for clinical review.

Every page has one owner. A page another team owns appears here because this line links to it, and changes to it go to that team.

Heart and Vascular Care

Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, cares for the heart and blood vessels across central Alabama: testing and checkups, procedures and surgery, and rehabilitation, through cardiology practices and hospitals near where you live.

Medically Reviewed Content
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library
About this module

Template module · Written copy. The page name, then the hero description field, one paragraph of 40 to 380 characters that is the only part a visitor arriving from search is guaranteed to see. Ours, 231 characters. It names the care in the order a person meets it (testing, procedures and surgery, rehabilitation) and carries the co-brand on first mention. No fear cue and no superlative. The buttons are Find a Cardiologist and Find a Location.

Research and Evidence for This Page

This page's buttons: Find a Cardiologist · Find a Location. Booking is per practice (Q53, Q54: no navigator line), so the two doors are the doctor and the office. The practices are in the care teams module and the hospitals in the location module.
RULINGEvery page's buttons are chosen for the reader who lands on it

A page shows zero, one or two buttons, each reasoned from the moment its reader is in. Leads go where a real decision exists (planning a birth, a diagnosis in pregnancy, a failed screen, a follow-up specialist, a pediatrician for a healthy newborn). A page read by a parent whose baby is in a NICU now offers the page's own help and the support every NICU family gets, never a sales button. No button anywhere asks anyone to choose a NICU.

  • Nobody plans a NICU stay: a baby comes to one from the delivery room or by transfer between hospitals, so a button to find one serves no reader.
  • A baby in a NICU already has its doctors at the bedside, and most families name a pediatrician before discharge, so a pediatrician button on an apnea page sells to nobody.
  • Serving the business and serving the parent are meant to agree: where no honest lead exists, help that keeps the family with Orlando Health is the business value.
  • Two slots are a ceiling, never a quota: a filler button beside a page's one real action comes off.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDRelated services are single service lines, in the designer's Services tab

Related services render as the Services tab of the designer's tabs module, as he drew them: six cards on a line page, each one service line on the ruled list, never two specialties under one name, each with one sentence on how that line joins a newborn's care.

  • The designer's service line and location frames show Services, Conditions and Treatments as three tabs, the Services tab holding six single-line cards with a sentence each.
  • The ruled list of children's service lines carries pediatric hematology and pediatric oncology, pulmonology and sleep medicine, neurology and neurosurgery as separate lines; a combined name matches no page that will exist.
  • A gate refuses any service card whose name is not a ruled line.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDThe page is set in Lufga, the typeface Orlando Health uses, at its three weights

Every page uses Lufga, loaded from orlandohealth.com, at 400, 500 and 700 only. Headings 700, the hero paragraph 500, body and buttons 400.

  • Read on orlandohealth.com, 2026-10-20: the site loads Lufga in three files, Regular 400, Medium 500 and Bold 700, and sets its headings at 700.
  • The designer's frames are set in the same face; an earlier build used a stand-in, which is why its weights read differently beside his frames.

Sources

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDButtons are the designer's slim pills, with an icon in the hero

Pills are about 2.4 times their label tall, regular weight, with no border on solid pills; the two hero pills are equal width across the paragraph, each led by an ink icon chosen from its label. The facility hero's pills carry no icon.

  • Measured across the designer's frames: every pill is 2.3 to 2.5 times its label tall, and the hero pills carry a calendar or a phone before the label.
  • A gate checks every rendered pill against these proportions.

Decided 2026-10-20

RULINGThe Marketer's Playground features what the marketer wants to highlight

The feature accordion is a module, or a set of them, on any page type, for what the marketing team wants to feature about how they market the line or place: a program, a class, an event, parking or language access, a community program, a timely change, a real choice such as planning a high-risk birth. Each row: a headline, a short paragraph, a 5:4 photo, zero, one or two buttons. A row can point to a page that exists; it never repeats a module on the same page.

  • The designer's frames show the row with no button, one button and two buttons.
  • A high-risk birth is the one real choice on the neonatal line, so it is the line page's first row.

Decided 2026-10-20

What Heart and Vascular Care Treats

Heart and vascular care looks after your heart's muscle, valves and rhythm, and the arteries and veins from your neck to your legs. Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, treats these conditions across central Alabama, from checkups and testing to procedures, heart surgery and rehabilitation.

Many people first come to us with a racing or skipping heartbeat, chest pain, leg pain when they walk or swelling and bulging veins. Others come with a diagnosis such as heart failure, valve disease or high blood pressure.

About this module

Template module · Written block, the service line template's "What [line] Treats" (style guide §10.3, §11.7: up to five paragraphs, each under 80 words, no lists). Reshaped 2026-10-22 onto the frame (Kim: the pages did not follow their templates): the condition list moved to the Services, Conditions and Treatments tabs, which own it; the 911 list moved to the condition pages, which own When to Get Help Now, and one FAQ answer below; the hospitals and practices are the care teams module's and the locations module's. The opening sentence is the deck's; the second paragraph is ours, unchanged.

Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Heart Care Close to Home

Most people can get heart and vascular care close to home. Four cardiology practices see you before, after and between procedures, with offices from Birmingham to Jasper, Cullman, Talladega, Demopolis, Alabaster, Clanton, Centreville and Anniston, and six Baptist Health hospitals provide the tests, procedures and surgery.

About this module

Template module · Image and text, photo left (style guide §11.8: a heading up to 50 characters, text up to 600). The line's strongest true claim for a reader who can choose: care close to home. Reshaped 2026-10-22: the practice and hospital lists that were here belong to the care teams module and to each hospital's page and location row, where every capability and its already stands (TAVR at Brookwood, Shelby's electrophysiology lab, Calhoun's cath labs and angioplasty).

Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

What Your Care Looks Like

Heart care often begins with a test, may include a procedure, and goes on for years with medicines, checkups and rehabilitation, with your cardiologist beside you throughout. Many pacemakers and defibrillators can be checked remotely, so you make fewer trips. Chaplains are available at our hospitals for any patient or family.

About this module

Template module · Image and text, photo right (style guide §11.8), the frame's "What Your Care Looks Like". The claim is continuity. The remote monitoring sentence rests on the August questionnaire. The chaplaincy sentence is the faith floor for this line, stated once. Reshaped 2026-10-22 to the 600-character limit: the Orlando Health resources sentence came off (the co-brand already says it).

More to Know About Heart Care

The Structural Heart Program
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Valve Repair Through a Thin Tube

When a heart valve problem is getting worse, our structural heart team can often repair it through a thin tube instead of open-heart surgery. The program's Valve Clinic, at 2022 Brookwood Medical Center Drive, Medical Office Building B, Suite 210, Birmingham, is the place to start. Call (205) 877-2901.

Learn About the Program
Fast Care for a Clot in the Lungs
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

A Response Team at Three Hospitals

At Brookwood, Princeton and Shelby hospitals, a pulmonary embolism response team decides together how to treat each clot in the lungs. If you have sudden shortness of breath or chest pain, call 911.

Learn About the Team
Free Vascular Screening
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

A Free Check for Leg Pain and Swelling

Heart South offers a free check of the blood flow in your legs and the valves in your leg veins. It is for people with leg pain, swelling or heaviness, or with risk factors such as smoking, diabetes or high blood pressure.

Request a Screening
Same-Day Visits for Urgent Concerns
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

When a Heart Concern Cannot Wait

When a heart concern cannot wait for the next opening, ask for a same-day appointment. If it is an emergency, call 911.

Find a Practice
About this module

Library module · The feature accordion: rows the service line's marketing team chooses to feature, each a headline (35 characters), a short paragraph (350), a 5:4 photo and zero, one or two buttons. Four rows are ours, each from a source on disk and each something no other module on this page repeats. The two programs Kim ruled 2026-10-22 lead (wizard §0b: a program is reached from its own page and the playground rows); the Valve Clinic is the structural program's front desk (Q47) and the PERT teams are Q51. The free vascular screening is Heart South's, from its live screening page (it checks ankle and arm blood pressure and the leg veins). Same-day visits rest on the August questionnaire. Image briefs: a clinic reception with a nurse greeting a patient · a care team reviewing a lung scan together at a workstation · a technician holding an ultrasound probe to a calf, patient relaxed · a nurse and a patient at a desk with a calendar.

Prompts for the service line marketer, invented and never to publish as written: a heart-healthy cooking class at a Baptist Health hospital · a community blood pressure check day in Jasper or Talladega · a cardiac rehabilitation graduate's story · a Heart South office moving into the Baptist Health scheduling system, dated so it comes off.

The Practices That Care for Your Heart

Baptist Health Cardiovascular AssociatesOffices across the Birmingham areaBaptist Health CVA

Heart specialists who have cared for Alabama families since 1946, at ten offices from Birmingham to Jasper and Talladega.

Learn More
Baptist Health Vein Center, HooverHooverBaptist Health

Testing and treatment for varicose veins and other leg vein problems, in Hoover, with ultrasound done on site.

Learn More
Heart South Cardiovascular GroupAlabaster, Clanton and CentrevilleHeart South Cardiovascular Group

Cardiologists in Alabaster, Clanton and Centreville, with cardiac imaging and an outpatient vascular institute.

Learn More
Baptist Health Medical Group Cardiology, AnnistonAnnistonBHMG Cardiology

Cardiology care in Anniston, at the Physician Office Building at Baptist Health Calhoun Hospital and on Christine Avenue.

Learn More
About this module

Template module · Fills itself from the care team records, a card for each team relevant to this line. The card leads with the team, its location beneath (style guide §10.7 rule 5, Kim 2026-10-20, which reversed Daniel's 2026-10-07 card). The card wording is the hero description on each team's record, written once on that team's page and never repeated here. Every card takes the practice's own booking link (Q54): baptisthealthal.com/cva for Cardiovascular Associates and heartsouthpc.com for Heart South; the Vein Center and the Anniston practice take their own forms or numbers, written on their pages.

What renders on this line: Baptist Health Cardiovascular Associates · Heart South Cardiovascular Group · Baptist Health Vein Center, Hoover · Baptist Health Medical Group Cardiology, Anniston.

Find a Heart Doctor

Type a city or zip code
Use My Location
Type a doctor's first or last name
Female Male
View Doctors with Online Scheduling
[n] doctors foundMany doctors have multiple practice locations. View the doctor's profile for a complete list of their locationsSort By: A to Z
[Doctor Name 1], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
[Doctor Name 2], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
[Doctor Name 3], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
123›
About this module

Template module · Fills itself. The doctor finder, filtered to cardiology, with the practice or hospital each physician sees patients at shown on the row. Nothing is supplied. It shows employed physicians by default, with filters; physicians who are not employed stay in the global Find a Doctor (2026-10-02). No doctor is named anywhere in this page's copy.

Find Heart Care Near You

About this module

Template module · Fills itself. A map and a list of every hospital and practice office on the line, each linking to its page: the six hospitals (Baptist Health Brookwood, Princeton, Shelby, Walker, Citizens and Calhoun) and the 16 office buildings in the URL map: 10 hold Cardiovascular Associates offices (one of them also holds the Vein Center), 3 hold Heart South offices, 2 hold the Anniston practice, and 1 holds the Valve Clinic. The hospital records exist. The practice office records are written once, on the four care team pages, and render here. Nothing is supplied on this page.

Nephrology

Heart and kidney health are linked; kidney doctors help manage fluid, blood pressure and medicines with your cardiologist.

Learn More About Nephrology
Endocrinology and Diabetes

Diabetes raises heart and vessel risk, and diabetes care protects your arteries over the years.

Learn More About Endocrinology and Diabetes
Neuroscience

Stroke and heart rhythm problems are connected, so neurologists and cardiologists often care for the same patients.

Learn More About Neuroscience
Sleep Medicine

Untreated sleep apnea strains the heart; treating it supports blood pressure and heart rhythm care.

Learn More About Sleep Medicine
Pulmonary and Critical Care

Lung and heart conditions share symptoms like breathlessness, and lung specialists help sort out the cause.

Learn More About Pulmonary and Critical Care
Weight Loss and Bariatric Surgery

Reaching a healthy weight lowers blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar, the risks that strain the heart.

Learn More About Weight Loss and Bariatric Surgery

View All Service Lines

About this module

Template module · The tabs module, as on every service line page: Services, Conditions and Treatments. ⛔ Services holds service lines only (style guide §10.7 rule 30, Kim 2026-10-22: "these services cards are only to feature service lines"): the lines heart and vascular care works alongside, each card saying how, from bh_heart_related_service_lines.md. Conditions and Treatments fill themselves from the health library; the linked lists below give the grouping (11 conditions, 26 treatments).

The services with no page of their own (this block listed them as Services cards until 2026-10-22). They are never Services cards. Each is a section of a library page today, or a library page owed when Baptist confirms it, and the writers keep them here: high blood pressure · cardiomyopathy · SVT and atrial flutter (a section of the arrhythmia page) · TriClip · ASD and PFO closure · balloon valvuloplasty · cardiac PET, cardiac CT angiography and cardiac MRI · TEE and intravascular ultrasound · EKG · carotid stenting and endarterectomy (sections of the carotid page) · EVAR and AAA screening (sections of the aneurysm page) · pulmonary embolism response (a section of the DVT page) · IVC filter · chronic venous insufficiency and May-Thurner syndrome · adult ECMO.

Programs

Structural Heart Program

A team that repairs heart valves and closes the heart's appendage through a small tube, often instead of open-heart surgery.

Learn More About Structural Heart Program
Pulmonary Embolism Response Team

Specialists at three Baptist Health hospitals who decide together how to treat a blood clot in the lungs.

Learn More About Pulmonary Embolism Response Team

View All Programs

Conditions

Coronary artery disease

Coronary artery disease means the arteries that feed your heart have narrowed over time. It is common, it is treated every...

Learn More About Coronary artery disease
Heart failure

Heart failure means the heart pumps with less force than your body needs. It does not mean the heart has stopped. Baptist...

Learn More About Heart failure
Atrial fibrillation

Atrial fibrillation, or AFib, is the most common heart rhythm problem: the upper chambers beat in a fast, irregular pattern....

Learn More About Atrial fibrillation
Heart attack

A heart attack happens when blood flow to part of the heart muscle is suddenly blocked. It is an emergency: call 911....

Learn More About Heart attack
Heart valve disease

Heart valve disease means one or more of the heart's four valves does not open or close as it should. Many people are...

Learn More About Heart valve disease
Peripheral artery disease

Peripheral artery disease means the arteries that bring blood to your legs have narrowed, so your legs get less blood than...

Learn More About Peripheral artery disease

View All Conditions

Treatments

Cardiac catheterization

Cardiac catheterization uses a thin, flexible tube guided through a blood vessel to your heart. It shows your doctor how...

Learn More About Cardiac catheterization
Coronary angioplasty and stents

Coronary angioplasty opens a narrowed or blocked heart artery with a tiny balloon, and a stent, a small mesh tube, keeps it...

Learn More About Coronary angioplasty and stents
Echocardiogram

A painless ultrasound of your heart. Sound waves make a moving picture that shows the size and thickness of your heart, how...

Learn More About Echocardiogram
Cardiac catheter ablation

Cardiac catheter ablation treats an abnormal heart rhythm from inside the heart. Thin tubes guided through a vein find the...

Learn More About Cardiac catheter ablation
Transcatheter aortic valve replacement

Transcatheter aortic valve replacement, or TAVR, gives you a new aortic valve through a thin tube placed in an artery,...

Learn More About Transcatheter aortic valve replacement
Cardiac rehabilitation

A medically supervised program of exercise, education and support that helps you rebuild strength after a heart attack, a...

Learn More About Cardiac rehabilitation

View All Treatments

Questions People Ask Us

How do I make an appointment?

Each practice books its own appointments, so pick the one nearest you. Cardiovascular Associates takes requests at baptisthealthal.com/cva, and Heart South books at heartsouthpc.com. The Vein Center in Hoover and the Anniston practice take requests on their own pages.

Do I need a referral?

Many people come to a cardiologist because their primary care doctor sent them, and you can also ask the practice about booking on your own. Your insurance plan may have its own rules, so check with them before your visit.

Does heart failure mean my heart is about to stop?

No. Heart failure means the heart is not pumping as strongly as it should. Doctors manage it every day, with medicine, daily habits you can handle at home, and a care team that follows you over time. Your doctor may also mention ejection fraction, which is one measure of how strongly your heart pumps. It is a number that guides your plan, and it is a place to start. If either term has frightened you, ask your cardiologist to walk you through yours. See heart failure.

I think I am having a heart attack. Where do I go?

Call 911. Paramedics begin care when they arrive and take you to the nearest emergency room that can treat you. Brookwood, Princeton, Shelby and Calhoun hospitals open blocked arteries with angioplasty and stents. If you arrive at an emergency room that does not, the emergency team arranges your transfer. See heart attack.

I get leg pain when I walk. Is that a heart problem?

It can be a blood flow problem. Leg pain or cramping that starts when you walk and eases when you rest is a common sign of peripheral artery disease, which narrows the arteries in the legs. It is common, it is treatable, and it is worth mentioning to your doctor rather than putting up with. Cardiologists at Cardiovascular Associates and Heart South evaluate and treat it. See peripheral artery disease.

What if I need heart surgery?

Bypass and valve surgery are done at Baptist Health Brookwood Hospital and Baptist Health Princeton Hospital. Your cardiologist goes over your choices with you, tells you who will operate and where, and stays involved afterward. Rehabilitation starts about a month after your surgeon and cardiologist clear you. See coronary artery bypass surgery and cardiac rehabilitation.

About this module

Template module · Written copy. Ours, a fill; the deck and the June draft have no questions block except the heart failure explainer, which becomes the third question. The block answers entry questions about the line as a whole. A question about one practice's offices or booking details belongs on that practice's page; the first question here names the four booking routes and points there. Two answers rest on facts a source does not state.

Learn More About Your Heart

Before Your Visit

[Patient Resource 01][One line on what it is]Download Resource
[Patient Resource 02][One line on what it is]Download Resource
[Patient Resource 03][One line on what it is]Download Resource
[Patient Resource 04][One line on what it is]Download Resource
About this module

Template modules · Both fill themselves, from the content hub and the resource files, filtered to this line. The articles on this line are for living with a heart condition and for getting ready for a test or procedure. Nothing in them repeats an answer the questions block already gives. Calhoun's two heart articles are ported whole to the content hub (the URL map's 2 articles); Heart South's testing prep sheet is a resource, with the Heart South site live through about January 2027.

Baptist Health Calhoun Hospital

Baptist Health Calhoun Hospital

in Anniston, Alabama
400 E. 10th St., Anniston, AL 36207
Main phone: (256) 235-5121
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library
About this module

Template module · Fills itself from the hospital's location record: name, address, main phone, Click for Directions and Click to Call, over a photograph of the hospital. The heart services line is a field on the record. Address and phone come from the client's rename file (address) and 22 pages of the rmccares.org pull (the 256-235-5121 main line, used consistently). The hospital was Northeast Alabama Regional Medical Center until 2026-10-01.

Research and Evidence for This Page

This page's buttons: Click for Directions · Click to Call. A hospital page serves every line; its reader is going there or calling. Getting there and reaching the hospital are the facility template's own actions, the same for every line.
RULINGEvery page's buttons are chosen for the reader who lands on it

A page shows zero, one or two buttons, each reasoned from the moment its reader is in. Leads go where a real decision exists (planning a birth, a diagnosis in pregnancy, a failed screen, a follow-up specialist, a pediatrician for a healthy newborn). A page read by a parent whose baby is in a NICU now offers the page's own help and the support every NICU family gets, never a sales button. No button anywhere asks anyone to choose a NICU.

  • Nobody plans a NICU stay: a baby comes to one from the delivery room or by transfer between hospitals, so a button to find one serves no reader.
  • A baby in a NICU already has its doctors at the bedside, and most families name a pediatrician before discharge, so a pediatrician button on an apnea page sells to nobody.
  • Serving the business and serving the parent are meant to agree: where no honest lead exists, help that keeps the family with Orlando Health is the business value.
  • Two slots are a ceiling, never a quota: a filler button beside a page's one real action comes off.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDRelated services are single service lines, in the designer's Services tab

Related services render as the Services tab of the designer's tabs module, as he drew them: six cards on a line page, each one service line on the ruled list, never two specialties under one name, each with one sentence on how that line joins a newborn's care.

  • The designer's service line and location frames show Services, Conditions and Treatments as three tabs, the Services tab holding six single-line cards with a sentence each.
  • The ruled list of children's service lines carries pediatric hematology and pediatric oncology, pulmonology and sleep medicine, neurology and neurosurgery as separate lines; a combined name matches no page that will exist.
  • A gate refuses any service card whose name is not a ruled line.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDThe page is set in Lufga, the typeface Orlando Health uses, at its three weights

Every page uses Lufga, loaded from orlandohealth.com, at 400, 500 and 700 only. Headings 700, the hero paragraph 500, body and buttons 400.

  • Read on orlandohealth.com, 2026-10-20: the site loads Lufga in three files, Regular 400, Medium 500 and Bold 700, and sets its headings at 700.
  • The designer's frames are set in the same face; an earlier build used a stand-in, which is why its weights read differently beside his frames.

Sources

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDButtons are the designer's slim pills, with an icon in the hero

Pills are about 2.4 times their label tall, regular weight, with no border on solid pills; the two hero pills are equal width across the paragraph, each led by an ink icon chosen from its label. The facility hero's pills carry no icon.

  • Measured across the designer's frames: every pill is 2.3 to 2.5 times its label tall, and the hero pills carry a calendar or a phone before the label.
  • A gate checks every rendered pill against these proportions.

Decided 2026-10-20

RULINGThe Marketer's Playground features what the marketer wants to highlight

The feature accordion is a module, or a set of them, on any page type, for what the marketing team wants to feature about how they market the line or place: a program, a class, an event, parking or language access, a community program, a timely change, a real choice such as planning a high-risk birth. Each row: a headline, a short paragraph, a 5:4 photo, zero, one or two buttons. A row can point to a page that exists; it never repeats a module on the same page.

  • The designer's frames show the row with no button, one button and two buttons.
  • A high-risk birth is the one real choice on the neonatal line, so it is the line page's first row.

Decided 2026-10-20

If you think you are having a heart attack or a stroke, call 911 and let the ambulance bring you. Paramedics can begin treatment the moment they reach you.
About this module

Template module · One sentence, centered under the hero. On a hospital page that includes heart care, it is the emergency instruction, drawn from the hospital's own Heart and Vascular page ("Dial 911... don't try to drive to the hospital yourself").

About this module

Template module · Fills itself from the headings below, one icon each. Nothing is supplied.

Care in Anniston and Calhoun County

Baptist Health Calhoun Hospital is part of the private, not-for-profit, faith-based Baptist Health system that cares for people across central and northeast Alabama, and part of Orlando Health, a national not-for-profit health system. The hospital is in Anniston, and before October 2026 many people knew it as Regional Medical Center.

People come here for emergencies, surgery, cancer care, heart care, childbirth and the everyday care that keeps a family well. The hospital's Center for Women and Babies cares for mothers and newborns, and the hospital is a Baby-Friendly designated hospital, the first in Alabama to hold the designation. Chaplains are part of the care team for patients and families who want spiritual support.

About this module

Library module · Written copy beside a photograph, the opening statement of the hospital. Facts: the rename (Baptist Health Calhoun Hospital from 2026-10-01, in Anniston at 400 E. 10th St.), the Baptist Health descriptor, the Center for Women and Babies, and Baby-Friendly designation (verified current 2026-09-11 against the designating body's registry, designated since December 2011). Chaplains are part of Baptist Health's care at every hospital.

Map and Directions

Map placeholder1
Category Name
View As List
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library
ANNISTON, ALABAMABaptist Health Calhoun Hospital
400 E. 10th St., Anniston, AL 36207Open [Hours, from the record](256) 235-5121
Directions
Learn More
About this module

Template module · Fills itself: the map, with this hospital's card, from the location record. Nothing is supplied beyond the heading.

Heart Care at Baptist Health Calhoun Hospital

Heart care here starts with finding out what is happening in your heart, and continues with the devices that protect your heart rhythm. After a heart event, the hospital's cardiac rehabilitation program takes place a short walk away at Baptist Health Medical Pavilion Anniston.

Cardiac Catheterization Labs
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

A Close Look at the Arteries That Feed Your Heart

Doctors use a thin tube, guided through an artery, to look at the arteries that feed your heart and find any blockage. Two of the hospital's cardiac procedure laboratories are used for catheterization. Button: About Cardiac Catheterization → cardiac catheterization

Angioplasty and Stents
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Opening a Blocked Heart Artery, Planned or Urgent

When a catheterization finds a blocked artery, doctors can open it with a small balloon and hold it open with a stent. Button: About Angioplasty and Stents → coronary angioplasty and stents

Pacemakers and Defibrillators
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Devices That Keep Your Heart in Rhythm

A pacemaker keeps a slow heartbeat on pace, and an implantable defibrillator steps in when the heart beats dangerously fast. Doctors implant and check both here. Button: About Pacemakers → pacemaker implantation

Heart Monitors
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Months of Rhythm Recording to Find the Cause

A small monitor placed under the skin records your heart's rhythm for months, so your doctor can find the cause of fainting or a racing heartbeat. Button: About Loop Recorders → implantable cardiac loop recorder placement

Echocardiogram
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

An Ultrasound Picture of Your Heart

An ultrasound of your heart that shows its size, how well it pumps and how its valves work. Button: About Echocardiograms → echocardiogram

Stress Testing, EKG and Ambulatory Monitoring
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

How Your Heart Responds to Effort and Daily Life

These tests show how your heart behaves with effort and over a full day. The EKG records your heart's electrical signal in minutes; a Holter monitor, worn at home, records it for 24 hours. Button: About Stress Tests → exercise stress test

About this module

Library module · One introduction paragraph, then an accordion of items, each with a photograph, a headline of at most 35 characters, a short paragraph and a button. This is the heart care section of the shared page. It lists exactly the services Calhoun's row in the page manifest lists: cath labs; pacemakers, defibrillators and heart monitors; echocardiogram, stress testing, EKG and ambulatory monitoring. Facts are from the hospital's Cardiac Services page ("three advanced cardiac procedure laboratories, two used for catheterization"; "pacemakers, internal cardiac defibrillators, reveal devices"; "diagnostic studies, echocardiogram, computerized stress testing, electrocardiogram, 24-hour ambulatory monitoring").

⛔ No heart surgery in this section, in either direction. Cardiac rehabilitation is run by this hospital at the Baptist Health Medical Pavilion Anniston, so the introduction points to that page.

Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

The Emergency Room, Open Every Hour

The emergency room at Baptist Health Calhoun Hospital is open 24 hours a day, every day, with emergency physicians and nurses, and specialists on call when you need them.

The emergency room treats chest pain and suspected heart attacks, signs of a stroke, trouble breathing, serious injuries, severe pain and loss of consciousness. If you think you are having a heart attack or a stroke, or you cannot breathe, call 911 rather than driving yourself: paramedics begin treatment on the way and tell the emergency room you are coming.

About this module

Library module, used a second time · Written copy beside a photograph. For a hospital this is the emergency room. Facts: open 24 hours a day, seven days a week; staffed by emergency medicine physicians and specially trained nurses, paramedics and technicians; backed by an on-call list of specialty physicians drawn from a medical staff of more than 200 doctors (rmccares.org Emergency page). Trauma designation is held out of the copy, because Baptist's August answer says the system does not market trauma.

The Heart Team Near You

Cardiologists with Baptist Health Medical Group Cardiology, Anniston see patients in Anniston and work with the hospital's heart services. To book, use the practice's own scheduling link on its page.

About this module

Library module, from the service line template · Fills itself from the care team record, one card linking to its page. The card wording lives on the care team record: Baptist Health Medical Group Cardiology, Anniston, whose two Anniston offices are 1700 Christine Ave. #100 and 901 Leighton Ave., Suite 702 (Q26; Capability Facts §3). The introduction sentence below is the only written copy.

Doctors at Calhoun Hospital

Fills itself from this page's own record.

Type a city or zip code
Use My Location
Type a doctor's first or last name
Female Male
View Doctors with Online Scheduling
[n] doctors foundMany doctors have multiple practice locations. View the doctor's profile for a complete list of their locationsSort By: A to Z
[Doctor Name 1], MD [Specialty]OH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
[Doctor Name 2], MD [Specialty]OH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
[Doctor Name 3], MD [Specialty]OH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
123›
About this module

Library module · Fills itself: the doctor finder, filtered to cardiology at this hospital. Nothing is supplied.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the emergency room open all day and night?

Yes. The emergency room is open 24 hours a day, every day of the year.

I have chest pain. Should I drive myself?

No. Call 911. Paramedics can start treatment on the way and tell the emergency room you are coming.

Which heart tests can I have at the hospital?

Echocardiograms, stress tests, EKGs and 24-hour heart monitoring are available, along with cardiac catheterization. Your cardiologist orders the test and tells you where it takes place.

How do I book heart care?

Each heart practice books its own appointments. Start with the practice's page, linked above.

Where do I go for cardiac rehabilitation?

Cardiac rehabilitation takes place at Baptist Health Medical Pavilion Anniston, a short walk from the hospital.

What are the visiting hours?

Call the hospital's main number, (256) 235-5121, for current visiting hours.

About this module

Template module · Written copy, practical questions about this hospital. Heart questions in general belong on the service line page.

More Care at This Hospital

Fills itself from this hospital's own records: every service line it offers.

About this module

The Services tab fills from this hospital's record (reshaped 2026-10-22: the services list left the written block, which the facility template keeps for About). The record holds: Emergency care, open every hour · Heart and vascular care · Surgical care · Cancer care · Maternity care and women's health · Neurology · Orthopedic care · Digestive care · Respiratory care · Radiology and imaging · Behavioral health · Urology · Rehabilitation.

Template module · Fills itself, three tabs of cards with Learn More links. Nothing is written on this page: the card wording lives on each record. The Services tab links up to Heart and Vascular Care first.

Patient Resources

[Patient Resource 01][One line on what it is]Download Resource
[Patient Resource 02][One line on what it is]Download Resource
[Patient Resource 03][One line on what it is]Download Resource
[Patient Resource 04][One line on what it is]Download Resource
About this module

Template module · Fills itself from this hospital's record, up to four downloads. No resource has been supplied, so the module renders nothing until one is.

Awards and Accreditations

‹
[Award logo 1]
[Award logo 2]
[Award logo 3]
[Award logo 4]
[Award logo 5]
›
About this module

Template module · Fills itself, a band of logos from the awards record for this hospital. Nothing is supplied. No Calhoun award or accreditation has been verified for the renamed hospital apart from Baby-Friendly designation (registry check of 2026-09-11).

Baptist Health Medical Pavilion Anniston

Baptist Health Medical Pavilion Anniston

in Anniston, Alabama
731 Leighton Ave., Anniston, AL 36207
Main phone: (256) 231-8666
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library
About this module

Template module · Fills itself from the location record: building name, address, phone, Click for Directions and Click to Call, over a photograph of the building. Address: the live Tyler Center page gives 731 Leighton Avenue, Anniston, AL 36207 (the client's rename file spells the street "Leignton" in most rows and "Leighton" in one; the street is Leighton Avenue). Phone: the live Tyler Center page lists 256-231-8666.

Research and Evidence for This Page

This page's buttons: Click for Directions · Click to Call. A hospital page serves every line; its reader is going there or calling. Getting there and reaching the hospital are the facility template's own actions, the same for every line.
RULINGEvery page's buttons are chosen for the reader who lands on it

A page shows zero, one or two buttons, each reasoned from the moment its reader is in. Leads go where a real decision exists (planning a birth, a diagnosis in pregnancy, a failed screen, a follow-up specialist, a pediatrician for a healthy newborn). A page read by a parent whose baby is in a NICU now offers the page's own help and the support every NICU family gets, never a sales button. No button anywhere asks anyone to choose a NICU.

  • Nobody plans a NICU stay: a baby comes to one from the delivery room or by transfer between hospitals, so a button to find one serves no reader.
  • A baby in a NICU already has its doctors at the bedside, and most families name a pediatrician before discharge, so a pediatrician button on an apnea page sells to nobody.
  • Serving the business and serving the parent are meant to agree: where no honest lead exists, help that keeps the family with Orlando Health is the business value.
  • Two slots are a ceiling, never a quota: a filler button beside a page's one real action comes off.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDRelated services are single service lines, in the designer's Services tab

Related services render as the Services tab of the designer's tabs module, as he drew them: six cards on a line page, each one service line on the ruled list, never two specialties under one name, each with one sentence on how that line joins a newborn's care.

  • The designer's service line and location frames show Services, Conditions and Treatments as three tabs, the Services tab holding six single-line cards with a sentence each.
  • The ruled list of children's service lines carries pediatric hematology and pediatric oncology, pulmonology and sleep medicine, neurology and neurosurgery as separate lines; a combined name matches no page that will exist.
  • A gate refuses any service card whose name is not a ruled line.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDThe page is set in Lufga, the typeface Orlando Health uses, at its three weights

Every page uses Lufga, loaded from orlandohealth.com, at 400, 500 and 700 only. Headings 700, the hero paragraph 500, body and buttons 400.

  • Read on orlandohealth.com, 2026-10-20: the site loads Lufga in three files, Regular 400, Medium 500 and Bold 700, and sets its headings at 700.
  • The designer's frames are set in the same face; an earlier build used a stand-in, which is why its weights read differently beside his frames.

Sources

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDButtons are the designer's slim pills, with an icon in the hero

Pills are about 2.4 times their label tall, regular weight, with no border on solid pills; the two hero pills are equal width across the paragraph, each led by an ink icon chosen from its label. The facility hero's pills carry no icon.

  • Measured across the designer's frames: every pill is 2.3 to 2.5 times its label tall, and the hero pills carry a calendar or a phone before the label.
  • A gate checks every rendered pill against these proportions.

Decided 2026-10-20

RULINGThe Marketer's Playground features what the marketer wants to highlight

The feature accordion is a module, or a set of them, on any page type, for what the marketing team wants to feature about how they market the line or place: a program, a class, an event, parking or language access, a community program, a timely change, a real choice such as planning a high-risk birth. Each row: a headline, a short paragraph, a 5:4 photo, zero, one or two buttons. A row can point to a page that exists; it never repeats a module on the same page.

  • The designer's frames show the row with no button, one button and two buttons.
  • A high-risk birth is the one real choice on the neonatal line, so it is the line page's first row.

Decided 2026-10-20

This building has no emergency room. If you think you are having a heart attack or a stroke, call 911.
About this module

Template module · One sentence under the hero. People arrive at a rehabilitation building for appointments, and a heart event is never treated here, so the line sends emergencies where they belong.

About this module

Template module · Fills itself from the headings below, one icon each. Nothing is supplied.

What Is in This Building

Baptist Health Medical Pavilion Anniston is part of Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health. It is a free-standing outpatient building on the Baptist Health Calhoun Hospital campus in Anniston, and many people in the area still know it as the Tyler Center.

Under one roof you will find outpatient rehabilitation, including physical, occupational and speech therapy, an aquatic therapy pool, imaging, a lab, a wound healing center, a sleep center, and occupational health and wellness. The cardiac rehabilitation program for Baptist Health Calhoun Hospital is here too.

About this module

Library module · Written copy beside a photograph, the building's opening statement. Facts, from the live Tyler Center page: a free-standing center on the hospital's Anniston campus; rehabilitation, occupational health and wellness, wound care, balance disorders therapy and sleep disorder treatment; a large rehabilitation and fitness center; an indoor aquatic therapy pool; physical, occupational and speech therapists. The client's rename file names the services inside: Outpatient Rehabilitation, Outpatient Cardiac Rehabilitation, Outpatient Imaging, Outpatient Lab, Outpatient Wound Healing Center, Outpatient Sleep Center and Occupational Health and Wellness.

Map and Directions

Map placeholder1
Category Name
View As List
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library
ANNISTON, ALABAMABaptist Health Medical Pavilion Anniston
731 Leighton Ave., Anniston, AL 36207Open [Hours, from the record](256) 231-8666
Directions
Learn More
About this module

Template module · Fills itself: the map, with this building's card, from the location record. Nothing is supplied beyond the heading.

Cardiac Rehabilitation in Three Phases

Cardiac rehabilitation is a supervised program that helps you get stronger after a heart event, heart surgery or a diagnosis of heart or lung disease, and teaches you the habits that protect your heart. Here it moves with you from the hospital bed to life at home.

Phase 1: In the Hospital
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Recovery Begins Before You Go Home

Recovery starts before you leave the hospital. A cardiac rehabilitation nurse or exercise physiologist reviews your risk factors, what you want to learn and how active you are. Button: About Cardiac Rehabilitation → cardiac rehabilitation

Phase 2: Toward Recovery
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Supervised Exercise to Rebuild Strength

You exercise under medical supervision to strengthen your heart and lungs, and you learn how to build a heart-healthy life at home.

Phase 3: Outpatient Follow-Up
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Continued Check-ins as You Get Back to Life

The team keeps checking in as an outpatient, still under medical supervision, to see how you are doing and track your progress.

About this module

Library module · One introduction paragraph, then an accordion of three items, each with a photograph, a headline of at most 35 characters and a short paragraph. This is the heart care section of the page, and it carries the one service the manifest lists for this building: Calhoun's three-phase cardiac rehabilitation. The three phases are the program's own, from the Cardiac Rehabilitation page: an inpatient phase in which a cardiac rehabilitation nurse or exercise physiologist assesses risk factors, educational needs and activity level; a recovery phase of medically supervised exercise with teaching on a heart-healthy life; and an outpatient follow-up phase under medical supervision. The program is certified-nurse led ("trained and certified registered nurses in cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation").

The session counts, the wait to start and the "no maintenance phase" facts in Baptist's answers (Q32 to Q35) belong to the Shelby and Princeton programs and are not carried to Calhoun's.

Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

What a Rehab Session Includes

A physician supervises the program, and a nurse certified in cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation is with you. Your heart rhythm is monitored by EKG the whole time you exercise, so you can build strength with a team watching.

Sessions include strength training and flexibility exercises. The building has a full-service gym with locker rooms, an aquatic therapy pool for swim sessions and massage therapy by appointment. Along the way you will learn about the lifestyle changes that help a full recovery.

About this module

Library module, used a second time · Written copy beside a photograph: what a patient finds in a session. Facts from the Cardiac Rehabilitation page: a physician-supervised program with constant EKG monitoring during exercise; strength training and flexibility exercises; a full-service gym with locker rooms; swim sessions in the aquatic therapy pool; massage therapy by appointment; educational resources throughout. Who it is for, from the same page: people with heart or lung disease and people who have recently had cardiac or vascular surgery.

The Heart Team Near You

Baptist Health Medical Group Cardiology, Anniston is the cardiology practice for Anniston. Ask your cardiologist whether cardiac rehabilitation is right for you, and the practice will help you start.

About this module

Library module, from the service line template · Fills itself from the care team record. The card wording lives on the care team record: Baptist Health Medical Group Cardiology, Anniston. The introduction below is the only written copy.

Doctors at the Pavilion

Fills itself from this page's own record.

Type a city or zip code
Use My Location
Type a doctor's first or last name
Female Male
View Doctors with Online Scheduling
[n] doctors foundMany doctors have multiple practice locations. View the doctor's profile for a complete list of their locationsSort By: A to Z
[Doctor Name 1], MD [Specialty]OH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
[Doctor Name 2], MD [Specialty]OH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
[Doctor Name 3], MD [Specialty]OH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
123›
About this module

Library module · Fills itself: the doctor finder, filtered to this building. Nothing is supplied.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who can join cardiac rehabilitation?

People who have heart or lung disease, and people who have recently had heart or vascular surgery. Your cardiologist can tell you whether the program fits your recovery.

Do I need a referral?

Ask your cardiologist or your care team at the hospital. They can set up your first visit.

Is exercise safe after a heart event?

Yes, in a supervised program. Your heart rhythm is monitored by EKG during every exercise session, and a nurse certified in cardiac rehabilitation is with you.

What if I have a medical emergency in the building?

Tell a staff member right away, and call 911 if it is an emergency. The pavilion has no emergency room, and the hospital's emergency room is a short distance away on the same campus.

Where do I go for the first phase of rehabilitation?

The first phase begins at Baptist Health Calhoun Hospital while you are still a patient there. The team there will tell you how the next phases begin.

About this module

Template module · Written copy, practical questions about the building and the program.

More Care in This Building

Fills itself from this hospital's own records: every service line it offers.

About this module

Template module · Fills itself, three tabs of cards with Learn More links. Nothing is written on this page: the card wording lives on each record.

Patient Resources

[Patient Resource 01][One line on what it is]Download Resource
[Patient Resource 02][One line on what it is]Download Resource
[Patient Resource 03][One line on what it is]Download Resource
[Patient Resource 04][One line on what it is]Download Resource
About this module

Template module · Fills itself, up to four downloads. No resource has been supplied, so the module renders nothing until one is.

Awards and Accreditations

‹
[Award logo 1]
[Award logo 2]
[Award logo 3]
[Award logo 4]
[Award logo 5]
›
About this module

Template module · Fills itself from the awards record for this building. Nothing is supplied. No accreditation for this building is on file.

Baptist Health Brookwood Hospital

Baptist Health Brookwood Hospital

in Birmingham, Alabama
2010 Brookwood Medical Center Drive, Birmingham, AL 35209
Main phone: (833) 251-9895
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library
About this module

Template module · Fills itself from the hospital's location record: name, address, main phone, Click for Directions and Click to Call, over a photograph. The heart services line is a field on the record. The address is the same in the June draft and on the live page. The live page gives (833) 251-9895; the June draft, from the print flyer, gave (205) 877-1000.

Research and Evidence for This Page

This page's buttons: Click for Directions · Click to Call. A hospital page serves every line; its reader is going there or calling. Getting there and reaching the hospital are the facility template's own actions, the same for every line.
RULINGEvery page's buttons are chosen for the reader who lands on it

A page shows zero, one or two buttons, each reasoned from the moment its reader is in. Leads go where a real decision exists (planning a birth, a diagnosis in pregnancy, a failed screen, a follow-up specialist, a pediatrician for a healthy newborn). A page read by a parent whose baby is in a NICU now offers the page's own help and the support every NICU family gets, never a sales button. No button anywhere asks anyone to choose a NICU.

  • Nobody plans a NICU stay: a baby comes to one from the delivery room or by transfer between hospitals, so a button to find one serves no reader.
  • A baby in a NICU already has its doctors at the bedside, and most families name a pediatrician before discharge, so a pediatrician button on an apnea page sells to nobody.
  • Serving the business and serving the parent are meant to agree: where no honest lead exists, help that keeps the family with Orlando Health is the business value.
  • Two slots are a ceiling, never a quota: a filler button beside a page's one real action comes off.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDRelated services are single service lines, in the designer's Services tab

Related services render as the Services tab of the designer's tabs module, as he drew them: six cards on a line page, each one service line on the ruled list, never two specialties under one name, each with one sentence on how that line joins a newborn's care.

  • The designer's service line and location frames show Services, Conditions and Treatments as three tabs, the Services tab holding six single-line cards with a sentence each.
  • The ruled list of children's service lines carries pediatric hematology and pediatric oncology, pulmonology and sleep medicine, neurology and neurosurgery as separate lines; a combined name matches no page that will exist.
  • A gate refuses any service card whose name is not a ruled line.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDThe page is set in Lufga, the typeface Orlando Health uses, at its three weights

Every page uses Lufga, loaded from orlandohealth.com, at 400, 500 and 700 only. Headings 700, the hero paragraph 500, body and buttons 400.

  • Read on orlandohealth.com, 2026-10-20: the site loads Lufga in three files, Regular 400, Medium 500 and Bold 700, and sets its headings at 700.
  • The designer's frames are set in the same face; an earlier build used a stand-in, which is why its weights read differently beside his frames.

Sources

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDButtons are the designer's slim pills, with an icon in the hero

Pills are about 2.4 times their label tall, regular weight, with no border on solid pills; the two hero pills are equal width across the paragraph, each led by an ink icon chosen from its label. The facility hero's pills carry no icon.

  • Measured across the designer's frames: every pill is 2.3 to 2.5 times its label tall, and the hero pills carry a calendar or a phone before the label.
  • A gate checks every rendered pill against these proportions.

Decided 2026-10-20

RULINGThe Marketer's Playground features what the marketer wants to highlight

The feature accordion is a module, or a set of them, on any page type, for what the marketing team wants to feature about how they market the line or place: a program, a class, an event, parking or language access, a community program, a timely change, a real choice such as planning a high-risk birth. Each row: a headline, a short paragraph, a 5:4 photo, zero, one or two buttons. A row can point to a page that exists; it never repeats a module on the same page.

  • The designer's frames show the row with no button, one button and two buttons.
  • A high-risk birth is the one real choice on the neonatal line, so it is the line page's first row.

Decided 2026-10-20

If you think you are having a heart attack or a stroke, call 911 and let the ambulance bring you. Paramedics can begin treatment the moment they reach you.
About this module

Template module · One sentence, centered under the hero: the emergency instruction for a hospital page that includes heart care.

About this module

Template module · Fills itself from the headings below, one icon each. Nothing is supplied.

A Full Range of Care in Birmingham

Baptist Health Brookwood Hospital is part of the private, not-for-profit, faith-based Baptist Health system that has cared for people across central Alabama for more than a century, and part of Orlando Health, a national not-for-profit health system. With 595 beds, Brookwood is the largest hospital in the Baptist Health system.

People come here for emergencies, surgery, heart care, cancer care, orthopedics, weight loss and childbirth. The Women's Medical Center cares for mothers and has a Level III neonatal intensive care unit for newborns who need it, and Brookwood is one of the state's largest providers of behavioral health care. Chaplains are part of the care team for patients and families who want spiritual support.

About this module

Library module · Written copy beside a photograph, the opening statement of the hospital. Facts, from the June draft and the live page: a 595-bed acute care hospital, the largest in the Baptist Health system (the August answers confirmed 595, retiring 585); the Women's Medical Center with a Level III neonatal intensive care unit; one of the largest providers of behavioral health care in the state. Chaplains are part of Baptist Health's care at every hospital.

Map and Directions

Map placeholder1
Category Name
View As List
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMABaptist Health Brookwood Hospital
2010 Brookwood Medical Center Drive, Birmingham, AL 35209Open [Hours, from the record](833) 251-9895
Directions
Learn More
About this module

Template module · Fills itself: the map, with this hospital's card, from the location record. Nothing is supplied beyond the heading.

Heart Care at Baptist Health Brookwood Hospital

Brookwood is one of the Baptist Health hospitals where heart surgery is done, and it is where Baptist Health's transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) program is based. Around those are the labs and teams that diagnose and treat heart rhythm problems, blocked arteries, blood clots in the lung and diseases of the aorta and neck arteries.

Heart Surgery: Bypass and Valve
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Surgery That Restores Blood Flow and Valve Function

Surgeons perform coronary artery bypass surgery to route blood around blocked arteries, and valve surgery to repair or replace a valve that has narrowed or leaks. Button: About Bypass Surgery → coronary artery bypass surgery Button: About Valve Surgery → aortic valve repair or replacement

Structural Heart and TAVR
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Valve Treatment Through a Catheter

The Heart Team treats valve disease and other structural problems of the heart through a catheter, including transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR). Baptist Health's TAVR program is based at Brookwood. Button: About TAVR → transcatheter aortic valve replacement

Electrophysiology (EP) Lab
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Treatment for Heart Rhythm Problems

Electrophysiologists treat heart rhythm problems here, including catheter ablation and the implanting of pacemakers and defibrillators, through Baptist Health Cardiovascular Associates. Button: About Catheter Ablation → cardiac catheter ablation

Angioplasty and Stents
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Opening a Blocked Heart Artery, Planned or Urgent

When an artery to your heart is blocked, doctors open it with a balloon and place a stent, for planned procedures and for a heart attack. Baptist Health meets the national door-to-balloon benchmark for opening a blocked artery after a heart attack. Button: About Angioplasty → coronary angioplasty and stents

Aortic Aneurysm Repair
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Strengthening the Aorta From the Inside

Endovascular aneurysm repair strengthens a weakened section of the aorta from inside the artery, with a graft placed through the groin. Button: About Aortic Aneurysm → aortic aneurysm

Carotid Artery Surgery
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Clearing the Neck Artery to Lower Stroke Risk

Open surgery on the carotid artery in the neck removes the buildup that can lead to a stroke. The service is offered at Brookwood. Button: About Carotid Artery Disease → carotid artery disease

Pulmonary Embolism Response Team
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Specialists Who Decide Together on Each Clot

When a blood clot reaches the lung, a team of specialists decides together how to treat it, whether by removing the clot through a catheter or with medicine. Button: About Blood Clots → deep vein thrombosis

Echocardiogram
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

An Ultrasound Picture of Your Heart

An ultrasound of your heart that shows its size, how well it pumps and how its valves work. Button: About Echocardiograms → echocardiogram

About this module

Library module · One introduction paragraph, then an accordion of items, each with a photograph, a headline of at most 35 characters, a short paragraph and one or two buttons. This is the heart care section of the shared page. Brookwood is the most complete heart hospital in the system, so it carries eight items, one for each service in the manifest. Sources: the 2026-10-14 answers (Q28 EP labs at Brookwood and Princeton through Cardiovascular Associates; Q37 door-to-balloon; Q41 open carotid surgery at Brookwood, surgeon not named because not employed; Q44 bypass and valve surgery; Q48 EVAR at Brookwood, Princeton and Shelby; Q51 pulmonary embolism response teams at Brookwood, Princeton and Shelby; Q29 echocardiogram) and the 2026-08-04 answers (CABG at Brookwood and Princeton; TAVR consolidating to Brookwood only; structural heart procedures offered).

⛔ No surgery volume appears, no surgeon is named, no robotic or minimally invasive valve claim is made, and no chest pain center accreditation is claimed.

Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Emergency Care, Day and Night

The emergency department at Baptist Health Brookwood Hospital is open 24 hours a day, for needs from minor to major. Baptist Health also runs a free-standing emergency room at 7131 Cahaba Valley Rd. in Birmingham.

Brookwood is a Primary Stroke Center, certified by The Joint Commission, and stroke intervention is available here. For chest pain or signs of a stroke, call 911.

About this module

Library module, used a second time · Written copy beside a photograph, the emergency room. Facts: the emergency department is open 24 hours a day for needs from minor to major; Baptist Health also operates a free-standing emergency room at 7131 Cahaba Valley Rd., Birmingham, AL 35242 (the August answers corrected the Pelham address); Brookwood is a Primary Stroke Center accredited by The Joint Commission, with stroke intervention on site. Trauma is held out, because Baptist's August answer says the system does not market trauma.

The Heart Team Near You

Baptist Health Cardiovascular Associates is the cardiology practice behind heart rhythm care at Brookwood. To book, use the practice's own scheduling link on its page.

About this module

Library module, from the service line template · Fills itself from the care team record. The card wording lives on the care team record: Baptist Health Cardiovascular Associates. The introduction below is the only written copy.

Doctors at Brookwood Hospital

Fills itself from this page's own record.

Type a city or zip code
Use My Location
Type a doctor's first or last name
Female Male
View Doctors with Online Scheduling
[n] doctors foundMany doctors have multiple practice locations. View the doctor's profile for a complete list of their locationsSort By: A to Z
[Doctor Name 1], MD [Specialty]OH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
[Doctor Name 2], MD [Specialty]OH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
[Doctor Name 3], MD [Specialty]OH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
123›
About this module

Library module · Fills itself: the doctor finder, filtered to cardiology at this hospital. Nothing is supplied.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the emergency department open all day and night?

Yes. It is open 24 hours a day, every day of the year.

I have chest pain. Should I drive myself to Brookwood?

No. Call 911. Paramedics can start treatment on the way and tell the hospital you are coming.

Which heart procedures are done at Brookwood?

Heart surgery (bypass and valve), structural heart procedures including TAVR, electrophysiology procedures, angioplasty and stents, aortic aneurysm repair, carotid surgery and echocardiograms are all available. A response team for blood clots in the lung is also here.

How do I book heart care?

Each heart practice books its own appointments. Start with the practice's page, linked above.

Where is the free-standing emergency room?

It is at 7131 Cahaba Valley Rd. in Birmingham, and it is open around the clock.

What are the visiting hours?

Call the hospital's main number, (833) 251-9895, for current visiting hours.

About this module

Template module · Written copy, practical questions about this hospital.

More Care at This Hospital

Fills itself from this hospital's own records: every service line it offers.

About this module

The Services tab fills from this hospital's record (reshaped 2026-10-22: the services list left the written block, which the facility template keeps for About). The record holds: 24-hour emergency care · Heart and vascular care · Cancer care · Orthopedics and sports medicine · Weight loss and bariatrics · Women's care · Neurology and neurosurgery, including stroke intervention · Surgical services, including robotic-assisted surgery · Surgical spine program · Pulmonary and thoracic care · Digestive health · Urology · Radiology and diagnostic imaging · Rehabilitation therapy · Behavioral health · Wound care.

Template module · Fills itself, three tabs of cards with Learn More links. Nothing is written on this page: the card wording lives on each record. The Services tab links up to Heart and Vascular Care first.

Patient Resources

[Patient Resource 01][One line on what it is]Download Resource
[Patient Resource 02][One line on what it is]Download Resource
[Patient Resource 03][One line on what it is]Download Resource
[Patient Resource 04][One line on what it is]Download Resource
About this module

Template module · Fills itself, up to four downloads. No resource has been supplied, so the module renders nothing until one is.

Awards and Accreditations

‹
[Award logo 1]
[Award logo 2]
[Award logo 3]
[Award logo 4]
[Award logo 5]
›
About this module

Template module · Fills itself, a band of logos from the awards record for this hospital. Nothing is supplied. The record holds: The Joint Commission accreditation; Primary Stroke Center (The Joint Commission); American Heart Association Get With The Guidelines Gold Plus, stroke; MBSAQIP Comprehensive Center, bariatric surgery; Advanced Certification in Perinatal Care (The Joint Commission). The June draft also named U.S. News & World Report high-performing ratings, including pacemaker implantation.

Baptist Health Princeton Hospital

Baptist Health Princeton Hospital

in Birmingham, Alabama
701 Princeton Ave. SW, Birmingham, AL 35211
Main phone: (833) 251-9897
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library
About this module

Template module · Fills itself from the hospital's location record: name, address, main phone, Click for Directions and Click to Call, over a photograph. The heart services line is a field on the record. The address is the same in the June draft and on the live page. The live page gives (833) 251-9897; the June draft, from the print flyer, gave (205) 783-3000.

Research and Evidence for This Page

This page's buttons: Click for Directions · Click to Call. A hospital page serves every line; its reader is going there or calling. Getting there and reaching the hospital are the facility template's own actions, the same for every line.
RULINGEvery page's buttons are chosen for the reader who lands on it

A page shows zero, one or two buttons, each reasoned from the moment its reader is in. Leads go where a real decision exists (planning a birth, a diagnosis in pregnancy, a failed screen, a follow-up specialist, a pediatrician for a healthy newborn). A page read by a parent whose baby is in a NICU now offers the page's own help and the support every NICU family gets, never a sales button. No button anywhere asks anyone to choose a NICU.

  • Nobody plans a NICU stay: a baby comes to one from the delivery room or by transfer between hospitals, so a button to find one serves no reader.
  • A baby in a NICU already has its doctors at the bedside, and most families name a pediatrician before discharge, so a pediatrician button on an apnea page sells to nobody.
  • Serving the business and serving the parent are meant to agree: where no honest lead exists, help that keeps the family with Orlando Health is the business value.
  • Two slots are a ceiling, never a quota: a filler button beside a page's one real action comes off.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDRelated services are single service lines, in the designer's Services tab

Related services render as the Services tab of the designer's tabs module, as he drew them: six cards on a line page, each one service line on the ruled list, never two specialties under one name, each with one sentence on how that line joins a newborn's care.

  • The designer's service line and location frames show Services, Conditions and Treatments as three tabs, the Services tab holding six single-line cards with a sentence each.
  • The ruled list of children's service lines carries pediatric hematology and pediatric oncology, pulmonology and sleep medicine, neurology and neurosurgery as separate lines; a combined name matches no page that will exist.
  • A gate refuses any service card whose name is not a ruled line.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDThe page is set in Lufga, the typeface Orlando Health uses, at its three weights

Every page uses Lufga, loaded from orlandohealth.com, at 400, 500 and 700 only. Headings 700, the hero paragraph 500, body and buttons 400.

  • Read on orlandohealth.com, 2026-10-20: the site loads Lufga in three files, Regular 400, Medium 500 and Bold 700, and sets its headings at 700.
  • The designer's frames are set in the same face; an earlier build used a stand-in, which is why its weights read differently beside his frames.

Sources

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDButtons are the designer's slim pills, with an icon in the hero

Pills are about 2.4 times their label tall, regular weight, with no border on solid pills; the two hero pills are equal width across the paragraph, each led by an ink icon chosen from its label. The facility hero's pills carry no icon.

  • Measured across the designer's frames: every pill is 2.3 to 2.5 times its label tall, and the hero pills carry a calendar or a phone before the label.
  • A gate checks every rendered pill against these proportions.

Decided 2026-10-20

RULINGThe Marketer's Playground features what the marketer wants to highlight

The feature accordion is a module, or a set of them, on any page type, for what the marketing team wants to feature about how they market the line or place: a program, a class, an event, parking or language access, a community program, a timely change, a real choice such as planning a high-risk birth. Each row: a headline, a short paragraph, a 5:4 photo, zero, one or two buttons. A row can point to a page that exists; it never repeats a module on the same page.

  • The designer's frames show the row with no button, one button and two buttons.
  • A high-risk birth is the one real choice on the neonatal line, so it is the line page's first row.

Decided 2026-10-20

If you think you are having a heart attack or a stroke, call 911 and let the ambulance bring you. Paramedics can begin treatment the moment they reach you.
About this module

Template module · One sentence, centered under the hero: the emergency instruction for a hospital page that includes heart care.

About this module

Template module · Fills itself from the headings below, one icon each. Nothing is supplied.

Care Close to Home in Birmingham

Baptist Health Princeton Hospital has served its neighbors for more than a century. It is a 505-bed hospital with a full range of medical and surgical care, part of the private, not-for-profit, faith-based Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, a national not-for-profit health system.

People come here for emergencies, heart care, cancer care, orthopedics, weight loss, neurology and the everyday care that keeps a family well. Princeton is recognized as a leader in aortic valve surgery, and it supports a clinical research program and a medical residency program. Pastoral care is part of the team for patients and families who want spiritual support.

About this module

Library module · Written copy beside a photograph, the opening statement of the hospital. Facts, from the June draft and the live page: a 505-bed acute care hospital in Birmingham; a full scope of medical services; a clinical research program and a medical residency program; a recognized leader in aortic valve surgery. Chaplains are part of Baptist Health's care at every hospital, and the June draft lists pastoral care among Princeton's services.

Map and Directions

Map placeholder1
Category Name
View As List
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMABaptist Health Princeton Hospital
701 Princeton Ave. SW, Birmingham, AL 35211Open [Hours, from the record](833) 251-9897
Directions
Learn More
About this module

Template module · Fills itself: the map, with this hospital's card, from the location record. The June draft adds one practical fact, free parking for patients and visitors, which the location record holds as an amenity. Nothing else is supplied.

Heart Care at Baptist Health Princeton Hospital

Princeton is one of the Baptist Health hospitals where heart surgery is done. Around it are the labs and teams that treat heart rhythm problems and blocked arteries, help you recover after a heart event, and care for diseases of the aorta and neck arteries.

Heart Surgery: Bypass and Valve
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Surgery That Restores Blood Flow and Valve Function

Surgeons perform coronary artery bypass surgery to route blood around blocked arteries, and valve surgery to repair or replace a valve that has narrowed or leaks. Button: About Bypass Surgery → coronary artery bypass surgery Button: About Valve Surgery → aortic valve repair or replacement

Electrophysiology (EP) Lab
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Treatment for Heart Rhythm Problems

Electrophysiologists treat heart rhythm problems here, including catheter ablation and the implanting of pacemakers and defibrillators, through Baptist Health Cardiovascular Associates. Button: About Catheter Ablation → cardiac catheter ablation

Angioplasty and Stents
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Opening a Blocked Heart Artery, Planned or Urgent

When an artery to your heart is blocked, doctors open it with a balloon and place a stent, for planned procedures and for a heart attack. Baptist Health meets the national door-to-balloon benchmark for opening a blocked artery after a heart attack. Button: About Angioplasty → coronary angioplasty and stents

Cardiac Rehabilitation
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

36 Supervised Sessions to Rebuild Strength

A supervised program of 36 sessions that rebuilds your strength after a heart event or heart surgery. It usually begins about a month after your surgeon and cardiologist clear you, and the sessions take place at the hospital. Button: About Cardiac Rehabilitation → cardiac rehabilitation

Aortic Aneurysm Repair
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Strengthening the Aorta From the Inside

Endovascular aneurysm repair strengthens a weakened section of the aorta from inside the artery, with a graft placed through the groin. Button: About Aortic Aneurysm → aortic aneurysm

Carotid Artery Surgery
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Clearing the Neck Artery to Lower Stroke Risk

Open surgery on the carotid artery in the neck removes the buildup that can lead to a stroke. The service is offered at Princeton. Button: About Carotid Artery Disease → carotid artery disease

Pulmonary Embolism Response Team
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Specialists Who Decide Together on Each Clot

When a blood clot reaches the lung, a team of specialists decides together how to treat it, whether by removing the clot through a catheter or with medicine. Button: About Blood Clots → deep vein thrombosis

Echocardiogram
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

An Ultrasound Picture of Your Heart

An ultrasound of your heart that shows its size, how well it pumps and how its valves work. Button: About Echocardiograms → echocardiogram

About this module

Library module · One introduction paragraph, then an accordion of items, each with a photograph, a headline of at most 35 characters, a short paragraph and one or two buttons. This is the heart care section of the shared page, with one item for each service in the manifest. Sources: the 2026-10-14 answers (Q28 EP labs at Brookwood and Princeton through Cardiovascular Associates; Q31 to Q35 cardiac rehabilitation at Shelby and Princeton, 36 sessions, a wait of about a month after the surgeon and cardiology clear the patient, no home or remote option, no maintenance phase; Q37 door-to-balloon; Q41 open carotid surgery at Princeton, surgeon not named because not employed; Q44 bypass and valve surgery; Q48 EVAR; Q51 pulmonary embolism response teams; Q29 echocardiogram) and the 2026-08-04 answers (CABG at Brookwood and Princeton).

⛔ No surgery volume appears, no surgeon is named, no robotic or minimally invasive valve claim is made, and no chest pain center accreditation is claimed.

Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Emergency Care, Day and Night

The emergency department at Baptist Health Princeton Hospital is ready for emergencies at any hour of the day or night, with a fast response for chest pain and for signs of a stroke.

Princeton is a Primary Stroke Center, certified by The Joint Commission. For chest pain or signs of a stroke, call 911.

About this module

Library module, used a second time · Written copy beside a photograph, the emergency room. Facts: emergency care for needs at any hour; fast response for chest pain or stroke symptoms; Primary Stroke Center certified by The Joint Commission. Trauma is held out, because Baptist's August answer says the system does not market trauma.

The Heart Team Near You

Baptist Health Cardiovascular Associates has an office at Princeton and provides heart rhythm care at the hospital. To book, use the practice's own scheduling link on its page.

About this module

Library module, from the service line template · Fills itself from the care team record. The card wording lives on the care team record: Baptist Health Cardiovascular Associates, which has an office at Princeton (Q26). The introduction below is the only written copy.

Doctors at Princeton Hospital

Fills itself from this page's own record.

Type a city or zip code
Use My Location
Type a doctor's first or last name
Female Male
View Doctors with Online Scheduling
[n] doctors foundMany doctors have multiple practice locations. View the doctor's profile for a complete list of their locationsSort By: A to Z
[Doctor Name 1], MD [Specialty]OH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
[Doctor Name 2], MD [Specialty]OH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
[Doctor Name 3], MD [Specialty]OH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
123›
About this module

Library module · Fills itself: the doctor finder, filtered to cardiology at this hospital. Nothing is supplied.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the emergency department open all day and night?

Yes. It is ready for emergencies at any hour, every day.

I have chest pain. Should I drive myself to Princeton?

No. Call 911. Paramedics can start treatment on the way and tell the hospital you are coming.

Which heart services are at Princeton?

Heart surgery (bypass and valve), electrophysiology procedures, angioplasty and stents, cardiac rehabilitation, aortic aneurysm repair, carotid surgery and echocardiograms are all available. A response team for blood clots in the lung is also here.

How do I start cardiac rehabilitation?

Your surgeon and your cardiologist decide when you are ready. The program usually begins about a month after they clear you, and the sessions are at the hospital.

Is there free parking?

Yes. Parking is free for patients and visitors.

What are the visiting hours?

Call the hospital's main number, (833) 251-9897, for current visiting hours.

About this module

Template module · Written copy, practical questions about this hospital.

More Care at This Hospital

Fills itself from this hospital's own records: every service line it offers.

About this module

The Services tab fills from this hospital's record (reshaped 2026-10-22: the services list left the written block, which the facility template keeps for About). The record holds: Emergency care · Heart and vascular care · Cancer care · Orthopedics and rehabilitation · Weight loss and bariatrics · Neurosciences · Digestive health care · Behavioral health · Pulmonary and thoracic care · Respiratory services · Sleep center · Urology · Surgical services, including robotic-assisted surgery · Radiology and diagnostic imaging · Palliative care · Pastoral care · Primary and specialty care centers.

Template module · Fills itself, three tabs of cards with Learn More links. Nothing is written on this page: the card wording lives on each record. The Services tab links up to Heart and Vascular Care first.

Patient Resources

[Patient Resource 01][One line on what it is]Download Resource
[Patient Resource 02][One line on what it is]Download Resource
[Patient Resource 03][One line on what it is]Download Resource
[Patient Resource 04][One line on what it is]Download Resource
About this module

Template module · Fills itself, up to four downloads. No resource has been supplied, so the module renders nothing until one is.

Awards and Accreditations

‹
[Award logo 1]
[Award logo 2]
[Award logo 3]
[Award logo 4]
[Award logo 5]
›
About this module

Template module · Fills itself, a band of logos from the awards record for this hospital. Nothing is supplied. The record holds: Primary Stroke Center (The Joint Commission); the AACVPR-certified cardio-pulmonary rehabilitation program; the MBSAQIP-accredited bariatrics center. The stroke-award line (Get With The Guidelines) waits on Baptist's confirmation of which award is current.

Baptist Health Shelby Hospital

Baptist Health Shelby Hospital

in Alabaster, Alabama
1000 1st St. North, Alabaster, AL 35007
Main phone: (833) 251-9898
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library
About this module

Template module · Fills itself from the hospital's location record: name, address, main phone, Click for Directions and Click to Call, over a photograph. The heart services line is a field on the record. The address and the phone, (833) 251-9898, are the same in the June draft and on the live page.

Research and Evidence for This Page

This page's buttons: Click for Directions · Click to Call. A hospital page serves every line; its reader is going there or calling. Getting there and reaching the hospital are the facility template's own actions, the same for every line.
RULINGEvery page's buttons are chosen for the reader who lands on it

A page shows zero, one or two buttons, each reasoned from the moment its reader is in. Leads go where a real decision exists (planning a birth, a diagnosis in pregnancy, a failed screen, a follow-up specialist, a pediatrician for a healthy newborn). A page read by a parent whose baby is in a NICU now offers the page's own help and the support every NICU family gets, never a sales button. No button anywhere asks anyone to choose a NICU.

  • Nobody plans a NICU stay: a baby comes to one from the delivery room or by transfer between hospitals, so a button to find one serves no reader.
  • A baby in a NICU already has its doctors at the bedside, and most families name a pediatrician before discharge, so a pediatrician button on an apnea page sells to nobody.
  • Serving the business and serving the parent are meant to agree: where no honest lead exists, help that keeps the family with Orlando Health is the business value.
  • Two slots are a ceiling, never a quota: a filler button beside a page's one real action comes off.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDRelated services are single service lines, in the designer's Services tab

Related services render as the Services tab of the designer's tabs module, as he drew them: six cards on a line page, each one service line on the ruled list, never two specialties under one name, each with one sentence on how that line joins a newborn's care.

  • The designer's service line and location frames show Services, Conditions and Treatments as three tabs, the Services tab holding six single-line cards with a sentence each.
  • The ruled list of children's service lines carries pediatric hematology and pediatric oncology, pulmonology and sleep medicine, neurology and neurosurgery as separate lines; a combined name matches no page that will exist.
  • A gate refuses any service card whose name is not a ruled line.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDThe page is set in Lufga, the typeface Orlando Health uses, at its three weights

Every page uses Lufga, loaded from orlandohealth.com, at 400, 500 and 700 only. Headings 700, the hero paragraph 500, body and buttons 400.

  • Read on orlandohealth.com, 2026-10-20: the site loads Lufga in three files, Regular 400, Medium 500 and Bold 700, and sets its headings at 700.
  • The designer's frames are set in the same face; an earlier build used a stand-in, which is why its weights read differently beside his frames.

Sources

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDButtons are the designer's slim pills, with an icon in the hero

Pills are about 2.4 times their label tall, regular weight, with no border on solid pills; the two hero pills are equal width across the paragraph, each led by an ink icon chosen from its label. The facility hero's pills carry no icon.

  • Measured across the designer's frames: every pill is 2.3 to 2.5 times its label tall, and the hero pills carry a calendar or a phone before the label.
  • A gate checks every rendered pill against these proportions.

Decided 2026-10-20

RULINGThe Marketer's Playground features what the marketer wants to highlight

The feature accordion is a module, or a set of them, on any page type, for what the marketing team wants to feature about how they market the line or place: a program, a class, an event, parking or language access, a community program, a timely change, a real choice such as planning a high-risk birth. Each row: a headline, a short paragraph, a 5:4 photo, zero, one or two buttons. A row can point to a page that exists; it never repeats a module on the same page.

  • The designer's frames show the row with no button, one button and two buttons.
  • A high-risk birth is the one real choice on the neonatal line, so it is the line page's first row.

Decided 2026-10-20

If you think you are having a heart attack or a stroke, call 911 and let the ambulance bring you. Paramedics can begin treatment the moment they reach you.
About this module

Template module · One sentence, centered under the hero: the emergency instruction for a hospital page that includes heart care.

About this module

Template module · Fills itself from the headings below, one icon each. Nothing is supplied.

Care in Alabaster Since 1959

Baptist Health Shelby Hospital has served Alabaster and the communities around it since 1959, when it opened with 35 beds. Today it is a 252-bed hospital, part of the private, not-for-profit, faith-based Baptist Health system that has cared for people across central Alabama for more than a century, and part of Orlando Health, a national not-for-profit health system.

People come here for emergencies, heart care, orthopedics, surgery, diagnostic imaging and behavioral health. Chaplains are part of the care team for patients and families who want spiritual support.

About this module

Library module · Written copy beside a photograph, the opening statement of the hospital. Facts, from the June draft and the live page: serving Alabaster and the surrounding communities since 1959 (the hospital opened with 35 beds); a 252-bed hospital today; areas of expertise that include behavioral health, diagnostic imaging, heart and vascular care, orthopedics and surgical services. Chaplains are part of Baptist Health's care at every hospital.

Map and Directions

Map placeholder1
Category Name
View As List
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library
ALABASTER, ALABAMABaptist Health Shelby Hospital
1000 1st St. North, Alabaster, AL 35007Open [Hours, from the record](833) 251-9898
Directions
Learn More
About this module

Template module · Fills itself: the map, with this hospital's card, from the location record. Nothing is supplied beyond the heading.

Heart Care at Baptist Health Shelby Hospital

Shelby has the labs and teams that treat heart rhythm problems and blocked arteries, help you recover after a heart event, and care for diseases of the aorta and neck arteries, close to home in Alabaster.

Electrophysiology (EP) Lab
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Treatment for Heart Rhythm Problems

Electrophysiologists from Heart South Cardiovascular Group treat heart rhythm problems in the hospital's EP lab. Button: About Catheter Ablation → cardiac catheter ablation

Angioplasty and Stents
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Opening a Blocked Heart Artery, Planned or Urgent

When an artery to your heart is blocked, doctors open it with a balloon and place a stent, for planned procedures and for a heart attack. Baptist Health meets the national door-to-balloon benchmark for opening a blocked artery after a heart attack. Button: About Angioplasty → coronary angioplasty and stents

Cardiac Rehabilitation
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

36 Supervised Sessions to Rebuild Strength

A supervised program of 36 sessions that rebuilds your strength after a heart event or heart surgery. It usually begins about a month after your surgeon and cardiologist clear you, and the sessions take place at the hospital. Button: About Cardiac Rehabilitation → cardiac rehabilitation

Aortic Aneurysm Repair
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Strengthening the Aorta From the Inside

Endovascular aneurysm repair strengthens a weakened section of the aorta from inside the artery, with a graft placed through the groin. Button: About Aortic Aneurysm → aortic aneurysm

Carotid Artery Surgery
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Clearing the Neck Artery to Lower Stroke Risk

Open surgery on the carotid artery in the neck removes the buildup that can lead to a stroke. The service is offered at Shelby. Button: About Carotid Artery Disease → carotid artery disease

Pulmonary Embolism Response Team
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Specialists Who Decide Together on Each Clot

When a blood clot reaches the lung, a team of specialists decides together how to treat it, whether by removing the clot through a catheter or with medicine. Button: About Blood Clots → deep vein thrombosis

Echocardiogram
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

An Ultrasound Picture of Your Heart

An ultrasound of your heart that shows its size, how well it pumps and how its valves work. Button: About Echocardiograms → echocardiogram

About this module

Library module · One introduction paragraph, then an accordion of items, each with a photograph, a headline of at most 35 characters, a short paragraph and one button. This is the heart care section of the shared page, with one item for each service in the manifest. Sources: the 2026-10-14 answers (Q28 the EP lab at Shelby through Heart South; Q31 to Q35 cardiac rehabilitation at Shelby and Princeton, 36 sessions, a wait of about a month after the surgeon and cardiology clear the patient, no home or remote option, no maintenance phase; Q37 door-to-balloon; Q41 open carotid surgery at Shelby, surgeon not named because not employed; Q48 EVAR at Shelby; Q51 pulmonary embolism response teams; Q29 echocardiogram) and the 2026-08-04 answers (PCI at Shelby; the 24/7 stroke team).

⛔ No surgery or ablation volume appears and no surgeon is named. The introduction names no heart surgery.

Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Emergency Care, Day and Night

The emergency department at Baptist Health Shelby Hospital is ready for any emergency, big or small, at any hour of the day or night.

Shelby is a Primary Stroke Center, certified by The Joint Commission, with a dedicated stroke team on call around the clock. For chest pain or signs of a stroke, call 911.

About this module

Library module, used a second time · Written copy beside a photograph, the emergency room. Facts: the emergency room handles any emergency, big or small, at any hour; Primary Stroke Center certified by The Joint Commission; a 24/7 dedicated stroke team at Shelby (the August answers). Trauma is held out, because Baptist's August answer says the system does not market trauma.

The Heart Team Near You

Heart South Cardiovascular Group has an office in Alabaster and provides heart rhythm care at Shelby. To book, use the practice's own scheduling link on its page.

About this module

Library module, from the service line template · Fills itself from the care team record. The card wording lives on the care team record: Heart South Cardiovascular Group, whose offices are Alabaster, Clanton and Centreville (Q26) and which runs the EP lab at Shelby (Q28). The introduction below is the only written copy.

Doctors at Shelby Hospital

Fills itself from this page's own record.

Type a city or zip code
Use My Location
Type a doctor's first or last name
Female Male
View Doctors with Online Scheduling
[n] doctors foundMany doctors have multiple practice locations. View the doctor's profile for a complete list of their locationsSort By: A to Z
[Doctor Name 1], MD [Specialty]OH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
[Doctor Name 2], MD [Specialty]OH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
[Doctor Name 3], MD [Specialty]OH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
123›
About this module

Library module · Fills itself: the doctor finder, filtered to cardiology at this hospital. Nothing is supplied.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the emergency department open all day and night?

Yes. It is ready for any emergency, at any hour, every day.

I have chest pain. Should I drive myself to Shelby?

No. Call 911. Paramedics can start treatment on the way and tell the hospital you are coming.

Which heart services are at Shelby?

Electrophysiology procedures, angioplasty and stents, cardiac rehabilitation, aortic aneurysm repair, carotid surgery and echocardiograms are all available. A response team for blood clots in the lung is also here.

Where is heart surgery done?

Heart surgery is done at Baptist Health Brookwood Hospital and Baptist Health Princeton Hospital. Your cardiologist will arrange it.

How do I start cardiac rehabilitation?

Your surgeon and your cardiologist decide when you are ready. The program usually begins about a month after they clear you, and the sessions are at the hospital.

What are the visiting hours?

Call the hospital's main number, (833) 251-9898, for current visiting hours.

About this module

Template module · Written copy, practical questions about this hospital.

More Care at This Hospital

Fills itself from this hospital's own records: every service line it offers.

About this module

The Services tab fills from this hospital's record (reshaped 2026-10-22: the services list left the written block, which the facility template keeps for About). The record holds: 24-hour emergency care · Heart and vascular care · Orthopedics and sports medicine · Neurology and neurosurgery · Surgical services, including robotic-assisted surgery · Surgical spine program · Behavioral health · Pulmonary and thoracic care · Radiology and diagnostic imaging · Rehabilitation therapy · Sleep Disorder Center · Weight loss and bariatrics · Urology · Women's health diagnostic services · Wound care · Endoscopy.

Template module · Fills itself, three tabs of cards with Learn More links. Nothing is written on this page: the card wording lives on each record. The Services tab links up to Heart and Vascular Care first.

Patient Resources

[Patient Resource 01][One line on what it is]Download Resource
[Patient Resource 02][One line on what it is]Download Resource
[Patient Resource 03][One line on what it is]Download Resource
[Patient Resource 04][One line on what it is]Download Resource
About this module

Template module · Fills itself, up to four downloads. No resource has been supplied, so the module renders nothing until one is.

Awards and Accreditations

‹
[Award logo 1]
[Award logo 2]
[Award logo 3]
[Award logo 4]
[Award logo 5]
›
About this module

Template module · Fills itself, a band of logos from the awards record for this hospital. Nothing is supplied. The record holds: The Joint Commission accreditation; Primary Stroke Center (The Joint Commission); American Heart Association Get With The Guidelines Gold Plus, stroke. The June draft also names a U.S. News & World Report high-performing rating in heart attack care and an American College of Cardiology cath lab PCI accreditation; both wait on Baptist's confirmation that they are current.

Baptist Health Walker Hospital

Baptist Health Walker Hospital

in Jasper, Alabama
3400 U.S. Hwy. 78 East, Jasper, AL 35501
Main phone: (833) 251-9899
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library
About this module

Template module · Fills itself from the hospital's location record: name, address, main phone, Click for Directions and Click to Call, over a photograph. The heart services line is a field on the record. The address and the phone, (833) 251-9899, are the same in the June draft and on the live page. The June draft notes a print number of (205) 387-4000 for Walker Women's and a possibility that the (833) line is scheduling and nurse routing.

Research and Evidence for This Page

This page's buttons: Click for Directions · Click to Call. A hospital page serves every line; its reader is going there or calling. Getting there and reaching the hospital are the facility template's own actions, the same for every line.
RULINGEvery page's buttons are chosen for the reader who lands on it

A page shows zero, one or two buttons, each reasoned from the moment its reader is in. Leads go where a real decision exists (planning a birth, a diagnosis in pregnancy, a failed screen, a follow-up specialist, a pediatrician for a healthy newborn). A page read by a parent whose baby is in a NICU now offers the page's own help and the support every NICU family gets, never a sales button. No button anywhere asks anyone to choose a NICU.

  • Nobody plans a NICU stay: a baby comes to one from the delivery room or by transfer between hospitals, so a button to find one serves no reader.
  • A baby in a NICU already has its doctors at the bedside, and most families name a pediatrician before discharge, so a pediatrician button on an apnea page sells to nobody.
  • Serving the business and serving the parent are meant to agree: where no honest lead exists, help that keeps the family with Orlando Health is the business value.
  • Two slots are a ceiling, never a quota: a filler button beside a page's one real action comes off.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDRelated services are single service lines, in the designer's Services tab

Related services render as the Services tab of the designer's tabs module, as he drew them: six cards on a line page, each one service line on the ruled list, never two specialties under one name, each with one sentence on how that line joins a newborn's care.

  • The designer's service line and location frames show Services, Conditions and Treatments as three tabs, the Services tab holding six single-line cards with a sentence each.
  • The ruled list of children's service lines carries pediatric hematology and pediatric oncology, pulmonology and sleep medicine, neurology and neurosurgery as separate lines; a combined name matches no page that will exist.
  • A gate refuses any service card whose name is not a ruled line.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDThe page is set in Lufga, the typeface Orlando Health uses, at its three weights

Every page uses Lufga, loaded from orlandohealth.com, at 400, 500 and 700 only. Headings 700, the hero paragraph 500, body and buttons 400.

  • Read on orlandohealth.com, 2026-10-20: the site loads Lufga in three files, Regular 400, Medium 500 and Bold 700, and sets its headings at 700.
  • The designer's frames are set in the same face; an earlier build used a stand-in, which is why its weights read differently beside his frames.

Sources

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDButtons are the designer's slim pills, with an icon in the hero

Pills are about 2.4 times their label tall, regular weight, with no border on solid pills; the two hero pills are equal width across the paragraph, each led by an ink icon chosen from its label. The facility hero's pills carry no icon.

  • Measured across the designer's frames: every pill is 2.3 to 2.5 times its label tall, and the hero pills carry a calendar or a phone before the label.
  • A gate checks every rendered pill against these proportions.

Decided 2026-10-20

RULINGThe Marketer's Playground features what the marketer wants to highlight

The feature accordion is a module, or a set of them, on any page type, for what the marketing team wants to feature about how they market the line or place: a program, a class, an event, parking or language access, a community program, a timely change, a real choice such as planning a high-risk birth. Each row: a headline, a short paragraph, a 5:4 photo, zero, one or two buttons. A row can point to a page that exists; it never repeats a module on the same page.

  • The designer's frames show the row with no button, one button and two buttons.
  • A high-risk birth is the one real choice on the neonatal line, so it is the line page's first row.

Decided 2026-10-20

If you think you are having a heart attack or a stroke, call 911 and let the ambulance bring you. Paramedics can begin treatment the moment they reach you.
About this module

Template module · One sentence, centered under the hero: the emergency instruction for a hospital page that includes heart care.

About this module

Template module · Fills itself from the headings below, one icon each. Nothing is supplied.

Care Close to Home in Jasper

Baptist Health Walker Hospital has served Jasper and the surrounding communities for more than a century. It is a 267-bed medical and surgical hospital accredited by The Joint Commission, part of the private, not-for-profit, faith-based Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, a national not-for-profit health system.

People come here for emergencies, childbirth, orthopedics, spine care, surgery, diagnostic imaging, heart testing and behavioral health. Chaplains are part of the care team for patients and families who want spiritual support.

About this module

Library module · Written copy beside a photograph, the opening statement of the hospital. Facts, from the June draft and the live page: serving Jasper and the surrounding communities for more than a century; a 267-bed medical and surgical hospital accredited by The Joint Commission; areas of expertise that include behavioral health, diagnostic imaging, obstetrics, orthopedics, spine care and surgical services. The flyer's tagline, "Connect to health," is not used as a heading. Chaplains are part of Baptist Health's care at every hospital.

Map and Directions

Map placeholder1
Category Name
View As List
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library
JASPER, ALABAMABaptist Health Walker Hospital
3400 U.S. Hwy. 78 East, Jasper, AL 35501Open [Hours, from the record](833) 251-9899
Directions
Learn More
About this module

Template module · Fills itself: the map, with this hospital's card, from the location record. Nothing is supplied beyond the heading.

Heart Care at Baptist Health Walker Hospital

Walker gives you heart testing close to home in Jasper. If a test shows you need a procedure, your cardiologist will arrange it at another Baptist Health hospital.

Diagnostic Cath Lab
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Finding Blockages in the Arteries of Your Heart

Doctors guide a thin tube through an artery to look at the arteries that feed your heart and find any blockage. The lab at Walker is for diagnosis. Button: About Cardiac Catheterization → cardiac catheterization

Echocardiogram
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

An Ultrasound Picture of Your Heart

An ultrasound of your heart that shows its size, how well it pumps and how its valves work. Button: About Echocardiograms → echocardiogram

About this module

Library module · One introduction paragraph, then an accordion of two items, each with a photograph, a headline of at most 35 characters, a short paragraph and one button. This is the heart care section of the shared page, and it lists exactly the two services the manifest names for Walker: the diagnostic cath lab (Q36, diagnostic only today) and the echocardiogram (Q29, Walker is an echo location). Cardiac catheterization is described as a diagnostic test; the procedures that follow it, such as opening an artery, are stated as happening at other Baptist Health hospitals, where the October and August answers place PCI (Brookwood, Princeton, Shelby).

Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Emergency Care, Day and Night

The emergency department at Baptist Health Walker Hospital is ready for any emergency, big or small, at any hour of the day or night.

For a stroke, the hospital provides advanced stroke treatment, and a telestroke connection puts a stroke specialist in touch with your care team. For chest pain or signs of a stroke, call 911.

About this module

Library module, used a second time · Written copy beside a photograph, the emergency room. Facts: the emergency room handles any emergency, big or small, at any hour; advanced stroke treatment, with telestroke through Access TeleCare covering Walker (the August answers). Trauma is held out, because Baptist's August answer says the system does not market trauma.

Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Walker Women's Care

Walker Women's Care offers a full range of gynecology services and a childbirth experience built around your family. You deliver in a private labor and delivery suite, hold your baby skin to skin at delivery and keep your baby in your room to bond. After the birth you stay in one of 16 private postpartum rooms, and a certified lactation consultant on site helps with breastfeeding.

About this module

Library module, used a third time · Written copy beside a photograph. Walker Women's Care is a large part of what this hospital does, and the June draft carries it in detail. Facts: a full range of gynecology services; private labor and delivery suites; skin-to-skin contact at delivery; rooming-in; 16 private postpartum rooms; an on-site certified lactation consultant. The nursery level differs between the June draft (Level I Well Baby Nursery) and the live page (Level II Special Care Nursery), so no level is printed.

The Heart Team Near You

Baptist Health Cardiovascular Associates has an office in Jasper. To book, use the practice's own scheduling link on its page.

About this module

Library module, from the service line template · Fills itself from the care team record. The card wording lives on the care team record: Baptist Health Cardiovascular Associates, which has an office in Jasper (Q26). The introduction below is the only written copy.

Doctors at Walker Hospital

Fills itself from this page's own record.

Type a city or zip code
Use My Location
Type a doctor's first or last name
Female Male
View Doctors with Online Scheduling
[n] doctors foundMany doctors have multiple practice locations. View the doctor's profile for a complete list of their locationsSort By: A to Z
[Doctor Name 1], MD [Specialty]OH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
[Doctor Name 2], MD [Specialty]OH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
[Doctor Name 3], MD [Specialty]OH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
123›
About this module

Library module · Fills itself: the doctor finder, filtered to cardiology at this hospital. Nothing is supplied.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the emergency department open all day and night?

Yes. It is ready for any emergency, at any hour, every day.

I have chest pain. Should I drive myself to Walker?

No. Call 911. Paramedics can start treatment on the way and tell the hospital you are coming.

Which heart services are at Walker?

A diagnostic cath lab and echocardiograms. Both help your doctor see what is happening in your heart.

What if I need a procedure to open a blocked artery?

Your cardiologist will arrange it at a Baptist Health hospital that performs it, such as Baptist Health Brookwood Hospital, Baptist Health Princeton Hospital or Baptist Health Shelby Hospital.

How do I book a heart appointment in Jasper?

Each heart practice books its own appointments. Start with the practice's page, linked above.

What are the visiting hours?

Call the hospital's main number, (833) 251-9899, for current visiting hours.

About this module

Template module · Written copy, practical questions about this hospital.

More Care at This Hospital

Fills itself from this hospital's own records: every service line it offers.

About this module

The Services tab fills from this hospital's record (reshaped 2026-10-22: the services list left the written block, which the facility template keeps for About). The record holds: 24-hour emergency care · Heart testing and cardiac catheterization for diagnosis · Childbirth services and women's health · Neurological services, including advanced stroke treatment · Orthopedics and sports medicine · Surgical spine program · Surgical services, including robotic-assisted surgery · Behavioral health · Pulmonary and thoracic care · Radiology and diagnostic imaging · Rehabilitation therapy · Outpatient infusion therapy · Urology · Weight loss and bariatrics.

Template module · Fills itself, three tabs of cards with Learn More links. Nothing is written on this page: the card wording lives on each record. The Services tab links up to Heart and Vascular Care first.

Patient Resources

[Patient Resource 01][One line on what it is]Download Resource
[Patient Resource 02][One line on what it is]Download Resource
[Patient Resource 03][One line on what it is]Download Resource
[Patient Resource 04][One line on what it is]Download Resource
About this module

Template module · Fills itself, up to four downloads. No resource has been supplied, so the module renders nothing until one is.

Awards and Accreditations

‹
[Award logo 1]
[Award logo 2]
[Award logo 3]
[Award logo 4]
[Award logo 5]
›
About this module

Template module · Fills itself, a band of logos from the awards record for this hospital. Nothing is supplied. The record holds: The Joint Commission accreditation as a medical and surgical hospital, and Advanced Stroke Treatment. The June draft's employer-recognition line waits on the build team.

Baptist Health Citizens Hospital

Baptist Health Citizens Hospital

in Talladega, Alabama
604 Stone Ave., Talladega, AL 35160
Main phone: (833) 251-9896
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library
About this module

Template module · Fills itself from the hospital's location record: name, address, main phone, Click for Directions and Click to Call, over a photograph. The heart services line is a field on the record. The address and the phone, (833) 251-9896, are the same in the June draft and on the live page.

Research and Evidence for This Page

This page's buttons: Click for Directions · Click to Call. A hospital page serves every line; its reader is going there or calling. Getting there and reaching the hospital are the facility template's own actions, the same for every line.
RULINGEvery page's buttons are chosen for the reader who lands on it

A page shows zero, one or two buttons, each reasoned from the moment its reader is in. Leads go where a real decision exists (planning a birth, a diagnosis in pregnancy, a failed screen, a follow-up specialist, a pediatrician for a healthy newborn). A page read by a parent whose baby is in a NICU now offers the page's own help and the support every NICU family gets, never a sales button. No button anywhere asks anyone to choose a NICU.

  • Nobody plans a NICU stay: a baby comes to one from the delivery room or by transfer between hospitals, so a button to find one serves no reader.
  • A baby in a NICU already has its doctors at the bedside, and most families name a pediatrician before discharge, so a pediatrician button on an apnea page sells to nobody.
  • Serving the business and serving the parent are meant to agree: where no honest lead exists, help that keeps the family with Orlando Health is the business value.
  • Two slots are a ceiling, never a quota: a filler button beside a page's one real action comes off.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDRelated services are single service lines, in the designer's Services tab

Related services render as the Services tab of the designer's tabs module, as he drew them: six cards on a line page, each one service line on the ruled list, never two specialties under one name, each with one sentence on how that line joins a newborn's care.

  • The designer's service line and location frames show Services, Conditions and Treatments as three tabs, the Services tab holding six single-line cards with a sentence each.
  • The ruled list of children's service lines carries pediatric hematology and pediatric oncology, pulmonology and sleep medicine, neurology and neurosurgery as separate lines; a combined name matches no page that will exist.
  • A gate refuses any service card whose name is not a ruled line.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDThe page is set in Lufga, the typeface Orlando Health uses, at its three weights

Every page uses Lufga, loaded from orlandohealth.com, at 400, 500 and 700 only. Headings 700, the hero paragraph 500, body and buttons 400.

  • Read on orlandohealth.com, 2026-10-20: the site loads Lufga in three files, Regular 400, Medium 500 and Bold 700, and sets its headings at 700.
  • The designer's frames are set in the same face; an earlier build used a stand-in, which is why its weights read differently beside his frames.

Sources

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDButtons are the designer's slim pills, with an icon in the hero

Pills are about 2.4 times their label tall, regular weight, with no border on solid pills; the two hero pills are equal width across the paragraph, each led by an ink icon chosen from its label. The facility hero's pills carry no icon.

  • Measured across the designer's frames: every pill is 2.3 to 2.5 times its label tall, and the hero pills carry a calendar or a phone before the label.
  • A gate checks every rendered pill against these proportions.

Decided 2026-10-20

RULINGThe Marketer's Playground features what the marketer wants to highlight

The feature accordion is a module, or a set of them, on any page type, for what the marketing team wants to feature about how they market the line or place: a program, a class, an event, parking or language access, a community program, a timely change, a real choice such as planning a high-risk birth. Each row: a headline, a short paragraph, a 5:4 photo, zero, one or two buttons. A row can point to a page that exists; it never repeats a module on the same page.

  • The designer's frames show the row with no button, one button and two buttons.
  • A high-risk birth is the one real choice on the neonatal line, so it is the line page's first row.

Decided 2026-10-20

If you think you are having a heart attack or a stroke, call 911 and let the ambulance bring you. Paramedics can begin treatment the moment they reach you.
About this module

Template module · One sentence, centered under the hero: the emergency instruction for a hospital page that includes heart care.

About this module

Template module · Fills itself from the headings below, one icon each. Nothing is supplied.

Care Close to Home in Talladega

Baptist Health Citizens Hospital has served Talladega and the surrounding region for more than a century. It is a 122-bed hospital accredited by The Joint Commission, part of the private, not-for-profit, faith-based Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, a national not-for-profit health system.

People come here for emergencies, diagnostic testing and imaging, sleep care, rehabilitation and the everyday care that keeps a family well. Chaplains are part of the care team for patients and families who want spiritual support.

About this module

Library module · Written copy beside a photograph, the opening statement of the hospital. Facts, from the June draft and the live page: serving Talladega and the surrounding region for more than a century; a 122-bed hospital accredited by The Joint Commission. Chaplains are part of Baptist Health's care at every hospital.

Map and Directions

Map placeholder1
Category Name
View As List
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library
TALLADEGA, ALABAMABaptist Health Citizens Hospital
604 Stone Ave., Talladega, AL 35160Open [Hours, from the record](833) 251-9896
Directions
Learn More
About this module

Template module · Fills itself: the map, with this hospital's card, from the location record. Nothing is supplied beyond the heading.

Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Emergency Care, Day and Night

The emergency department at Baptist Health Citizens Hospital is ready for any emergency, big or small, at any hour of the day or night, with a quick response for chest pain and stroke symptoms.

A telestroke connection puts a stroke specialist in touch with your care team. For chest pain or signs of a stroke, call 911.

About this module

Library module, used a second time · Written copy beside a photograph, the emergency room. Facts: the emergency room handles any emergency, big or small, at any hour, with a quick response for chest pain or stroke symptoms; telestroke through Access TeleCare covers Citizens (the August answers). Trauma is held out, because Baptist's August answer says the system does not market trauma.

Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

The Sleep Disorder Center

Baptist Health Citizens Hospital is home to a Sleep Disorder Center accredited by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. If you snore, wake tired or stop breathing in your sleep, a sleep study here can show what is happening.

About this module

Library module, used a third time · Written copy beside a photograph. The Sleep Disorder Center is the one named program in the June draft, and its accreditation is a verifiable fact: accredited by and a member of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.

Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Heart Care at Baptist Health Citizens Hospital

Citizens gives you heart testing close to home. An echocardiogram is an ultrasound of your heart that shows its size, how well it pumps and how its valves work. Your cardiologist reads the pictures and explains what they mean for you.

If your care needs more than testing, your cardiologist will arrange it at another Baptist Health hospital.

About this module

Library module, used a fourth time · Written copy beside a photograph. This is the heart care section of the shared page. It lists exactly the one service the manifest names for Citizens: the echocardiogram (Q29, Citizens is an echo location). The June draft's "diagnostic cardiology" is the same service stated generally. Nothing else is claimed: no cath lab, no procedure and no cardiac rehabilitation are on file for Citizens. A reader who needs more is pointed to the hospitals that do it.

The Heart Team Near You

Baptist Health Cardiovascular Associates has an office in Talladega. To book, use the practice's own scheduling link on its page.

About this module

Library module, from the service line template · Fills itself from the care team record. The card wording lives on the care team record: Baptist Health Cardiovascular Associates, which has an office in Talladega where echocardiograms are also done (Q26, Q29). The introduction below is the only written copy.

Doctors at Citizens Hospital

Fills itself from this page's own record.

Type a city or zip code
Use My Location
Type a doctor's first or last name
Female Male
View Doctors with Online Scheduling
[n] doctors foundMany doctors have multiple practice locations. View the doctor's profile for a complete list of their locationsSort By: A to Z
[Doctor Name 1], MD [Specialty]OH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
[Doctor Name 2], MD [Specialty]OH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
[Doctor Name 3], MD [Specialty]OH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
123›
About this module

Library module · Fills itself: the doctor finder, filtered to cardiology at this hospital. Nothing is supplied.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the emergency department open all day and night?

Yes. It is ready for any emergency, at any hour, every day.

I have chest pain. Should I drive myself to Citizens?

No. Call 911. Paramedics can start treatment on the way and tell the hospital you are coming.

Which heart services are at Citizens?

Echocardiograms. If you need more than testing, your cardiologist will arrange it at another Baptist Health hospital.

Where can I find heart surgery or a heart procedure?

Heart surgery is done at Baptist Health Brookwood Hospital and Baptist Health Princeton Hospital. Your cardiologist will tell you which hospital fits your care.

What are the visiting hours?

Call the hospital's main number, (833) 251-9896, for current visiting hours.

About this module

Template module · Written copy, practical questions about this hospital.

More Care at This Hospital

Fills itself from this hospital's own records: every service line it offers.

About this module

The Services tab fills from this hospital's record (reshaped 2026-10-22: the services list left the written block, which the facility template keeps for About). The record holds: 24-hour emergency care · Diagnostic cardiology · General radiology and diagnostic imaging · Women's health diagnostic services and imaging · Endoscopy · Outpatient infusion therapy · Rehabilitation therapy · Respiratory services · Sleep disorders medicine · Concussion care · Teleneurology services.

Template module · Fills itself, three tabs of cards with Learn More links. Nothing is written on this page: the card wording lives on each record. The Services tab links up to Heart and Vascular Care first.

Patient Resources

[Patient Resource 01][One line on what it is]Download Resource
[Patient Resource 02][One line on what it is]Download Resource
[Patient Resource 03][One line on what it is]Download Resource
[Patient Resource 04][One line on what it is]Download Resource
About this module

Template module · Fills itself, up to four downloads. No resource has been supplied, so the module renders nothing until one is.

Awards and Accreditations

‹
[Award logo 1]
[Award logo 2]
[Award logo 3]
[Award logo 4]
[Award logo 5]
›
About this module

Template module · Fills itself, a band of logos from the awards record for this hospital. Nothing is supplied. The record holds: The Joint Commission accreditation, and the Sleep Disorder Center's accreditation by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.

Baptist Health CVA

Baptist Health Cardiovascular Associates

The heart group of Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health. Cardiologists and heart specialists who have cared for Alabama families since 1946, at ten offices from Birmingham to Jasper, Cullman, Talladega and Demopolis.

Medically Reviewed Content
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library
About this module

Template module · Written copy, the hero description field; 218 characters. The buttons are Request an Appointment, linking to the practice's own request form at baptisthealthal.com/cva, and Find a Location. The booking source is the live practice page: the form creates a request, and a representative contacts the patient within two business days.

Research and Evidence for This Page

This page's buttons: Request an Appointment. Cardiovascular Associates books its own visits through its scheduling link (Q53, Q54); one action.
RULINGEvery page's buttons are chosen for the reader who lands on it

A page shows zero, one or two buttons, each reasoned from the moment its reader is in. Leads go where a real decision exists (planning a birth, a diagnosis in pregnancy, a failed screen, a follow-up specialist, a pediatrician for a healthy newborn). A page read by a parent whose baby is in a NICU now offers the page's own help and the support every NICU family gets, never a sales button. No button anywhere asks anyone to choose a NICU.

  • Nobody plans a NICU stay: a baby comes to one from the delivery room or by transfer between hospitals, so a button to find one serves no reader.
  • A baby in a NICU already has its doctors at the bedside, and most families name a pediatrician before discharge, so a pediatrician button on an apnea page sells to nobody.
  • Serving the business and serving the parent are meant to agree: where no honest lead exists, help that keeps the family with Orlando Health is the business value.
  • Two slots are a ceiling, never a quota: a filler button beside a page's one real action comes off.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDRelated services are single service lines, in the designer's Services tab

Related services render as the Services tab of the designer's tabs module, as he drew them: six cards on a line page, each one service line on the ruled list, never two specialties under one name, each with one sentence on how that line joins a newborn's care.

  • The designer's service line and location frames show Services, Conditions and Treatments as three tabs, the Services tab holding six single-line cards with a sentence each.
  • The ruled list of children's service lines carries pediatric hematology and pediatric oncology, pulmonology and sleep medicine, neurology and neurosurgery as separate lines; a combined name matches no page that will exist.
  • A gate refuses any service card whose name is not a ruled line.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDThe page is set in Lufga, the typeface Orlando Health uses, at its three weights

Every page uses Lufga, loaded from orlandohealth.com, at 400, 500 and 700 only. Headings 700, the hero paragraph 500, body and buttons 400.

  • Read on orlandohealth.com, 2026-10-20: the site loads Lufga in three files, Regular 400, Medium 500 and Bold 700, and sets its headings at 700.
  • The designer's frames are set in the same face; an earlier build used a stand-in, which is why its weights read differently beside his frames.

Sources

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDButtons are the designer's slim pills, with an icon in the hero

Pills are about 2.4 times their label tall, regular weight, with no border on solid pills; the two hero pills are equal width across the paragraph, each led by an ink icon chosen from its label. The facility hero's pills carry no icon.

  • Measured across the designer's frames: every pill is 2.3 to 2.5 times its label tall, and the hero pills carry a calendar or a phone before the label.
  • A gate checks every rendered pill against these proportions.

Decided 2026-10-20

RULINGThe Marketer's Playground features what the marketer wants to highlight

The feature accordion is a module, or a set of them, on any page type, for what the marketing team wants to feature about how they market the line or place: a program, a class, an event, parking or language access, a community program, a timely change, a real choice such as planning a high-risk birth. Each row: a headline, a short paragraph, a 5:4 photo, zero, one or two buttons. A row can point to a page that exists; it never repeats a module on the same page.

  • The designer's frames show the row with no button, one button and two buttons.
  • A high-risk birth is the one real choice on the neonatal line, so it is the line page's first row.

Decided 2026-10-20

Who We Are

Cardiovascular Associates is the heart group of Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, caring for Alabama families since 1946. Cardiologists, heart rhythm and interventional specialists, nurse practitioners and physician assistants see you at ten offices across the Birmingham area and out to Jasper, Cullman, Talladega, Sylacauga and Demopolis.

The practice covers general and preventive cardiology, heart rhythm care, interventional and structural heart care, vascular disease and heart disease in women. For heart valve disease, the Baptist Health Valve Clinic in Birmingham brings your care together in one place: call (205) 877-2901.

About this module

Template module · Written copy under Who we are, then a short section on the Valve Clinic (the URL map places it here and on the heart valve disease page), then THE FEATURES. The conditions and tests are not listed: the treatments and conditions modules render them. The eight service areas in the second paragraph are the ones the live practice page names. The features are the cards below; the offices, the doctors and the tests belong to their own modules and are not repeated in them.

To check · Who we are, second paragraph:. Valve Clinic:. Card 1:. Card 2:. Card 3:.

What This Practice Offers

Heart Care for Women
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Heart Care for Women

Heart disease does not always look the same in women. The practice has a service built around it, so symptoms like unusual tiredness, shortness of breath or nausea get a cardiologist's attention.

Device Checks From a Distance
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Device Checks From a Distance

If you have a pacemaker or defibrillator, the heart lab at the main office can check many devices remotely, so you make fewer trips.

Same-day Visits for Urgent Concerns
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Same-day Visits for Urgent Concerns

When a heart concern cannot wait for the next opening, ask for a same-day appointment. In an emergency, call 911.

Meet the Team

Type a city or zip code
Use My Location
Type a doctor's first or last name
Female Male
View Doctors with Online Scheduling
[n] doctors foundMany doctors have multiple practice locations. View the doctor's profile for a complete list of their locationsSort By: A to Z
[Doctor Name 1], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group MemberBaptist Health Cardiovascular Associates
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
[Doctor Name 2], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group MemberBaptist Health Cardiovascular Associates
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
[Doctor Name 3], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group MemberBaptist Health Cardiovascular Associates
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
123›
About this module

Template module · Fills itself, narrowed to this practice: the physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants whose profiles name Cardiovascular Associates. Nothing is supplied. No doctor is named in this page's copy.

Our Offices

About this module

Template module · Fills itself from the practice's location records, one row for each office, each linking to the office building's facility page once the master mints it. The records do not exist yet, so their content is owed and is written here once, on the records (Q26; the URL map's office buildings tab). The practice's main number is the one on the live page; the office numbers are the live physician-finder location records (read 2026-10-22). Hours are not on any source. Two buildings (Cullman and Demopolis) are held until ownership is confirmed, because the address may belong to another hospital's campus; they stay in the table as offices.

RecordAddressPhoneHoursHeart care here
Baptist Health Cardiovascular Associates, Birmingham (Colonnade)3980 Colonnade Parkway, Birmingham, AL 35243(205) 510-5000Main office · echocardiograms · heart lab for remote device checks
Baptist Health Cardiovascular Associates, Hoover (Preserve Parkway)5295 Preserve Parkway, Suite 260, Hoover, AL 35244(205) 510-5000Cardiology visits. The Baptist Health Vein Center, Hoover is in Suite 270 of the same building
Baptist Health Cardiovascular Associates, Hoover (Meadowview)10 Meadowview Drive, Hoover, AL 35242(205) 510-5000Cardiology visits
Baptist Health Cardiovascular Associates, Vestavia200 Montgomery Highway, Suite 225, Vestavia, AL 35216(205) 510-5000Cardiology visits
Baptist Health Cardiovascular Associates, Sylacauga209 West Spring Street, Suite 104, Sylacauga, AL 35150(256) 245-5833Cardiology visits
Baptist Health Cardiovascular Associates, Talladega803 North Street East, Talladega, AL 35160(205) 510-5000Cardiology visits · echocardiograms
Baptist Health Cardiovascular Associates, Cullman1948 Alabama Highway 157, Professional Office Building I, Suite 230, Cullman, AL 35058(256) 962-5380Cardiology visits
Baptist Health Cardiovascular Associates, Demopolis105 US Highway 80, Demopolis, AL 36732(334) 287-2842Cardiology visits
Baptist Health Cardiovascular Associates, Princeton833 Princeton Avenue, Professional Office Building III, Suite 200B, Birmingham, AL 35211(205) 786-2776Cardiology visits
Baptist Health Cardiovascular Associates, Jasper3400 Highway 78 East, Medical Arts Tower, Suite 215, Jasper, AL 35501(205) 221-9494Cardiology visits · nuclear stress testing
Baptist Health Valve Clinic2022 Brookwood Medical Center Drive, Medical Office Building B, Suite 210, Birmingham, AL 35209(205) 877-2901Heart valve disease clinic (Q47)
Heart and Vascular Care

Cardiovascular Associates is a heart practice: its cardiologists deliver heart and vascular care across Alabama.

Learn More About Heart and Vascular Care

View All Service Lines

About this module

Template modules · All fill themselves, filtered to this practice. Services holds service lines only (§10.7 rule 30), from bh_heart_related_service_lines.md; Conditions and Treatments fill themselves. Nothing is supplied.

Conditions

Coronary artery disease

Coronary artery disease means the arteries that feed your heart have narrowed over time. It is common, it is treated every...

Learn More About Coronary artery disease
Heart failure

Heart failure means the heart pumps with less force than your body needs. It does not mean the heart has stopped. Baptist...

Learn More About Heart failure
Atrial fibrillation

Atrial fibrillation, or AFib, is the most common heart rhythm problem: the upper chambers beat in a fast, irregular pattern....

Learn More About Atrial fibrillation
Heart attack

A heart attack happens when blood flow to part of the heart muscle is suddenly blocked. It is an emergency: call 911....

Learn More About Heart attack
Heart valve disease

Heart valve disease means one or more of the heart's four valves does not open or close as it should. Many people are...

Learn More About Heart valve disease
Peripheral artery disease

Peripheral artery disease means the arteries that bring blood to your legs have narrowed, so your legs get less blood than...

Learn More About Peripheral artery disease

View All Conditions

Treatments

Cardiac catheterization

Cardiac catheterization uses a thin, flexible tube guided through a blood vessel to your heart. It shows your doctor how...

Learn More About Cardiac catheterization
Coronary angioplasty and stents

Coronary angioplasty opens a narrowed or blocked heart artery with a tiny balloon, and a stent, a small mesh tube, keeps it...

Learn More About Coronary angioplasty and stents
Coronary artery bypass surgery

Coronary artery bypass surgery uses a healthy blood vessel from another part of your body to route blood around a blocked...

Learn More About Coronary artery bypass surgery
Cardiac catheter ablation

Cardiac catheter ablation treats an abnormal heart rhythm from inside the heart. Thin tubes guided through a vein find the...

Learn More About Cardiac catheter ablation
Pacemaker implantation

A pacemaker is a small device placed under the skin near your collarbone. It senses a heartbeat that is too slow or pauses,...

Learn More About Pacemaker implantation
Implantable cardioverter-defibrillator placement

An implantable cardioverter-defibrillator, or ICD, is a small device placed under the skin. It watches your heart rhythm...

Learn More About Implantable cardioverter-defibrillator placement

View All Treatments

Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Insurances We Accept

[The plans this team accepts, from its record]

View Hospital Based Insurance
View Physician Based Insurance
About this module

Template module · Fills itself. Nothing is supplied.

Questions People Ask Us

How do I make an appointment?

Use the Request an Appointment form at baptisthealthal.com/cva, or call (205) 510-5000. The form sends a request, and a representative contacts you within two business days to confirm a time. If you are having a medical emergency, call 911.

Do I need a referral?

Many patients come on a primary care doctor's referral, and you can ask the office about booking on your own. Your insurance plan may have its own requirements, so check them before the visit.

Which tests can I have at the office?

Echocardiograms are done at the Colonnade office in Birmingham and the Talladega office. Cardiac CT and nuclear stress testing are available at the main office, with nuclear testing also at Jasper. Ask when you book, so your test is scheduled at the right office.

Where do procedures happen?

Visits, follow-up care and device checks happen at the office. Procedures such as ablation, pacemaker and defibrillator placement and angioplasty and stents are done at a Baptist Health hospital, and the team tells you which one and what to expect. See cardiac catheter ablation, pacemaker implantation and coronary angioplasty and stents.

Does heart disease look different in women?

It can. Women often have chest pain during a heart attack, and are also more likely than men to have shortness of breath, unusual tiredness, nausea or pain in the back or jaw. If you notice these signs, call 911, and bring them up at your visit even when they come and go. See heart attack.

About this module

Template module · Written copy. The reader is a patient or a family member deciding whether to book, with the practical questions first. The first answer is the live page's own booking instruction. The procedure-versus-office answer rests on Q28 (follow-up and device clinics run in the offices; procedures are at the hospital).

Awards and Accreditations

‹
[Award logo 1]
[Award logo 2]
[Award logo 3]
[Award logo 4]
[Award logo 5]
›

Patient Resources

[Patient Resource 01][One line on what it is]Download Resource
[Patient Resource 02][One line on what it is]Download Resource
[Patient Resource 03][One line on what it is]Download Resource
[Patient Resource 04][One line on what it is]Download Resource

Content Hub | View All

About this module

Template modules · All fill themselves. Nothing is supplied. No award or accreditation is confirmed for this practice, so the awards band stays empty.

Draft copy prepared by Marketing Technology, 2026-10-21.

Ready to Get Started?

Request an appointment and the practice will call you to schedule.

Request an Appointment

Baptist Health Vein Center, Hoover

The vein center of Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health. Ultrasound testing and treatment for varicose veins, swollen legs and other vein problems, in Hoover.

Medically Reviewed Content
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library
About this module

Template module · Written copy, the hero description field; 160 characters. The buttons are Request an Appointment, linking to the center's own request form on its live page (the form creates a request, and a representative contacts the patient within two business days), and Call (205) 949-9289.

Research and Evidence for This Page

This page's buttons: Request an Appointment. The Vein Center books its own visits; one action.
RULINGEvery page's buttons are chosen for the reader who lands on it

A page shows zero, one or two buttons, each reasoned from the moment its reader is in. Leads go where a real decision exists (planning a birth, a diagnosis in pregnancy, a failed screen, a follow-up specialist, a pediatrician for a healthy newborn). A page read by a parent whose baby is in a NICU now offers the page's own help and the support every NICU family gets, never a sales button. No button anywhere asks anyone to choose a NICU.

  • Nobody plans a NICU stay: a baby comes to one from the delivery room or by transfer between hospitals, so a button to find one serves no reader.
  • A baby in a NICU already has its doctors at the bedside, and most families name a pediatrician before discharge, so a pediatrician button on an apnea page sells to nobody.
  • Serving the business and serving the parent are meant to agree: where no honest lead exists, help that keeps the family with Orlando Health is the business value.
  • Two slots are a ceiling, never a quota: a filler button beside a page's one real action comes off.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDRelated services are single service lines, in the designer's Services tab

Related services render as the Services tab of the designer's tabs module, as he drew them: six cards on a line page, each one service line on the ruled list, never two specialties under one name, each with one sentence on how that line joins a newborn's care.

  • The designer's service line and location frames show Services, Conditions and Treatments as three tabs, the Services tab holding six single-line cards with a sentence each.
  • The ruled list of children's service lines carries pediatric hematology and pediatric oncology, pulmonology and sleep medicine, neurology and neurosurgery as separate lines; a combined name matches no page that will exist.
  • A gate refuses any service card whose name is not a ruled line.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDThe page is set in Lufga, the typeface Orlando Health uses, at its three weights

Every page uses Lufga, loaded from orlandohealth.com, at 400, 500 and 700 only. Headings 700, the hero paragraph 500, body and buttons 400.

  • Read on orlandohealth.com, 2026-10-20: the site loads Lufga in three files, Regular 400, Medium 500 and Bold 700, and sets its headings at 700.
  • The designer's frames are set in the same face; an earlier build used a stand-in, which is why its weights read differently beside his frames.

Sources

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDButtons are the designer's slim pills, with an icon in the hero

Pills are about 2.4 times their label tall, regular weight, with no border on solid pills; the two hero pills are equal width across the paragraph, each led by an ink icon chosen from its label. The facility hero's pills carry no icon.

  • Measured across the designer's frames: every pill is 2.3 to 2.5 times its label tall, and the hero pills carry a calendar or a phone before the label.
  • A gate checks every rendered pill against these proportions.

Decided 2026-10-20

RULINGThe Marketer's Playground features what the marketer wants to highlight

The feature accordion is a module, or a set of them, on any page type, for what the marketing team wants to feature about how they market the line or place: a program, a class, an event, parking or language access, a community program, a timely change, a real choice such as planning a high-risk birth. Each row: a headline, a short paragraph, a 5:4 photo, zero, one or two buttons. A row can point to a page that exists; it never repeats a module on the same page.

  • The designer's frames show the row with no button, one button and two buttons.
  • A high-risk birth is the one real choice on the neonatal line, so it is the line page's first row.

Decided 2026-10-20

Who We Are

The Baptist Health Vein Center in Hoover cares for legs that are swollen, aching or marked by veins that bulge or discolor. John Eagan, MD, and Kathleen Sentell, PA, lead the care with two ultrasound technologists: they test with ultrasound, explain what it shows, and treat with venous ablation, sclerotherapy and other vein procedures.

When the valves inside your veins do not close properly, blood pools in the legs. Some vein problems are cosmetic; others can damage the skin, cause ulcers or lead to dangerous blood clots, so a swollen or painful leg is worth having checked.

About this module

Template module · Written copy under Who we are, then THE FEATURES. The vein explanation is the live page's own: vein disease occurs when the valves in the veins do not close properly, and some vein problems are cosmetic while others can cause tissue damage, skin ulcers or dangerous blood clots. The symptom list is the live page's. The procedures (venous ablation, venous flow studies, sclerotherapy, the full range of vein procedures) are the Q59 answer. The conditions and treatments are not listed in full: the library pages and the treatments module carry them. The names of the two clinicians appear once, here, because the URL map names them for this page; the doctors module renders their profiles.

To check · Who we are, first paragraph:. Who we are, second paragraph:. Card 1:. Card 2:. Card 3:.

What This Center Offers

Vein Ultrasound, on Site
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Vein Ultrasound, on Site

The center's own ultrasound technologists check how blood moves through your leg veins, so the test happens where your treatment plan is made.

Treatment Through Small Punctures
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Treatment Through Small Punctures

Vein treatments here are minimally invasive, meant to reduce pain and speed recovery. The clinician explains your options and chooses with you.

Next Door to a Heart Office
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Next Door to a Heart Office

If your leg symptoms point to a heart or artery problem, Baptist Health Cardiovascular Associates has an office in the same building.

Meet the Team

Type a city or zip code
Use My Location
Type a doctor's first or last name
Female Male
View Doctors with Online Scheduling
[n] doctors foundMany doctors have multiple practice locations. View the doctor's profile for a complete list of their locationsSort By: A to Z
[Doctor Name 1], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group MemberBaptist Health Vein Center, Hoover
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
[Doctor Name 2], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group MemberBaptist Health Vein Center, Hoover
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
[Doctor Name 3], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group MemberBaptist Health Vein Center, Hoover
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
123›
About this module

Template module · Fills itself, narrowed to this center: the physician and physician assistant whose profiles name the Vein Center. Nothing is supplied.

Our Office

About this module

Template module · Fills itself from the center's location record, a single office, linking to the building's facility page once the master mints it. The record does not exist yet, so its content is owed and is written here once (the live Vein Center page; the URL map). The live page lists no hours.

RecordAddressPhoneHours
Baptist Health Vein Center, Hoover5295 Preserve Parkway, Suite 270, Hoover, AL 35244(205) 949-9289
Heart and Vascular Care

The Vein Center treats varicose veins and other vein conditions, part of heart and vascular care.

Learn More About Heart and Vascular Care

View All Service Lines

About this module

Template modules · All fill themselves, filtered to this center. The treatments the library holds for it are varicose veins, endovenous ablation, sclerotherapy for varicose veins, Doppler ultrasound and deep vein thrombosis. Nothing is supplied.

Conditions

Deep vein thrombosis

Deep vein thrombosis, or DVT, is a blood clot in a deep vein, most often in the leg. It is treatable, and a quick, painless...

Learn More About Deep vein thrombosis
Varicose veins

Varicose veins are enlarged, twisted veins near the skin, usually in the legs, caused by weakened vein valves. They can...

Learn More About Varicose veins

View All Conditions

Treatments

Doppler ultrasound

A Doppler ultrasound uses sound waves to show how blood moves through the veins and arteries in your arms, legs and neck. It...

Learn More About Doppler ultrasound
Endovenous ablation

Endovenous ablation closes a leaking varicose vein from the inside. Guided by ultrasound, your doctor places a thin catheter...

Learn More About Endovenous ablation
Sclerotherapy for varicose veins

Sclerotherapy treats spider veins and varicose veins with a small injection. A medicine goes into the affected vein, the...

Learn More About Sclerotherapy for varicose veins
Phlebectomy

Phlebectomy removes varicose veins through tiny punctures or small cuts in the skin. Numbing medicine keeps the area free of...

Learn More About Phlebectomy

View All Treatments

Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Insurances We Accept

[The plans this team accepts, from its record]

View Hospital Based Insurance
View Physician Based Insurance
About this module

Template module · Fills itself. Nothing is supplied.

Questions People Ask Us

Are my veins just a cosmetic problem?

Sometimes. Some vein problems change how the leg looks and nothing more. Others can cause swelling, pain, skin changes, ulcers or blood clots. An ultrasound shows how blood is moving through the veins, and that tells you which kind you have. See varicose veins.

What happens at a first visit?

The team asks about your symptoms and examines your legs. If you need one, you have a vein ultrasound, which is painless and shows how blood moves through your veins. The team tells you what the test found and what, if anything, to do about it.

What treatments do you offer?

The center offers the full range of vein procedures, including venous ablation, which closes a damaged vein from the inside through a small puncture, and sclerotherapy, an injection that closes smaller veins. See endovenous ablation and sclerotherapy.

When should I get help right away?

Call 911 for sudden shortness of breath or chest pain, especially with a swollen leg. Call your doctor the same day if one leg becomes swollen, painful, warm or red, because these can be signs of a blood clot. See deep vein thrombosis.

How do I make an appointment?

Use the request form on this page, or call (205) 949-9289. The form sends a request, and a representative contacts you within two business days to confirm a time.

About this module

Template module · Written copy. The reader is a person with a symptom they have put off, often after being told it is cosmetic. The first answer takes the "just cosmetic" worry; the second says what the visit holds; the fourth gives the 911 signs for a clot. The booking answer is the live page's own instruction.

Awards and Accreditations

‹
[Award logo 1]
[Award logo 2]
[Award logo 3]
[Award logo 4]
[Award logo 5]
›

Patient Resources

[Patient Resource 01][One line on what it is]Download Resource
[Patient Resource 02][One line on what it is]Download Resource
[Patient Resource 03][One line on what it is]Download Resource
[Patient Resource 04][One line on what it is]Download Resource

Content Hub | View All

About this module

Template modules · All fill themselves. Nothing is supplied. No award or accreditation is confirmed for this center, so the awards band stays empty.

Draft copy prepared by Marketing Technology, 2026-10-21.

Ready to Get Started?

Request an appointment and the practice will call you to schedule.

Request an Appointment

Heart South Cardiovascular Group

A heart and vascular practice that has joined Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health. Cardiologists and advanced practice providers at three offices in Alabaster, Clanton and Centreville, with cardiac imaging and a vascular institute.

Medically Reviewed Content
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library
About this module

Template module · Written copy, the hero description field; 234 characters. The buttons are Request an Appointment, linking to the practice's own booking page (the live site books new patients and follow-ups online), and Find a Location. The page keeps the practice's name through the transition (Q30).

Research and Evidence for This Page

This page's buttons: Request an Appointment. Heart South books its own visits; one action. Its site stays live through about January 2027 (Q56).
RULINGEvery page's buttons are chosen for the reader who lands on it

A page shows zero, one or two buttons, each reasoned from the moment its reader is in. Leads go where a real decision exists (planning a birth, a diagnosis in pregnancy, a failed screen, a follow-up specialist, a pediatrician for a healthy newborn). A page read by a parent whose baby is in a NICU now offers the page's own help and the support every NICU family gets, never a sales button. No button anywhere asks anyone to choose a NICU.

  • Nobody plans a NICU stay: a baby comes to one from the delivery room or by transfer between hospitals, so a button to find one serves no reader.
  • A baby in a NICU already has its doctors at the bedside, and most families name a pediatrician before discharge, so a pediatrician button on an apnea page sells to nobody.
  • Serving the business and serving the parent are meant to agree: where no honest lead exists, help that keeps the family with Orlando Health is the business value.
  • Two slots are a ceiling, never a quota: a filler button beside a page's one real action comes off.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDRelated services are single service lines, in the designer's Services tab

Related services render as the Services tab of the designer's tabs module, as he drew them: six cards on a line page, each one service line on the ruled list, never two specialties under one name, each with one sentence on how that line joins a newborn's care.

  • The designer's service line and location frames show Services, Conditions and Treatments as three tabs, the Services tab holding six single-line cards with a sentence each.
  • The ruled list of children's service lines carries pediatric hematology and pediatric oncology, pulmonology and sleep medicine, neurology and neurosurgery as separate lines; a combined name matches no page that will exist.
  • A gate refuses any service card whose name is not a ruled line.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDThe page is set in Lufga, the typeface Orlando Health uses, at its three weights

Every page uses Lufga, loaded from orlandohealth.com, at 400, 500 and 700 only. Headings 700, the hero paragraph 500, body and buttons 400.

  • Read on orlandohealth.com, 2026-10-20: the site loads Lufga in three files, Regular 400, Medium 500 and Bold 700, and sets its headings at 700.
  • The designer's frames are set in the same face; an earlier build used a stand-in, which is why its weights read differently beside his frames.

Sources

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDButtons are the designer's slim pills, with an icon in the hero

Pills are about 2.4 times their label tall, regular weight, with no border on solid pills; the two hero pills are equal width across the paragraph, each led by an ink icon chosen from its label. The facility hero's pills carry no icon.

  • Measured across the designer's frames: every pill is 2.3 to 2.5 times its label tall, and the hero pills carry a calendar or a phone before the label.
  • A gate checks every rendered pill against these proportions.

Decided 2026-10-20

RULINGThe Marketer's Playground features what the marketer wants to highlight

The feature accordion is a module, or a set of them, on any page type, for what the marketing team wants to feature about how they market the line or place: a program, a class, an event, parking or language access, a community program, a timely change, a real choice such as planning a high-risk birth. Each row: a headline, a short paragraph, a 5:4 photo, zero, one or two buttons. A row can point to a page that exists; it never repeats a module on the same page.

  • The designer's frames show the row with no button, one button and two buttons.
  • A high-risk birth is the one real choice on the neonatal line, so it is the line page's first row.

Decided 2026-10-20

Who We Are

Heart South Cardiovascular Group has cared for heart and vascular patients in central Alabama with a focus on prevention and has joined Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health. It keeps its name, offices and website, heartsouthpc.com, while the move onto baptisthealthal.com is finished.

The practice treats coronary artery disease, disease of the aorta, heart rhythm problems, heart valve disorders, congenital heart defects, heart failure and high blood pressure, and disease of the arteries and veins. Visits and testing are at its three offices, and procedures that need a hospital are done at a Baptist Health hospital.

About this module

Template module · Written copy under Who we are, then a section on the Heart South Vascular Institute (the URL map places it here, as its own outpatient lab in the Alabaster office building, same physicians), then THE FEATURES. The service areas in Who we are are the live site's list; the procedures are not repeated, since the treatments module renders them. The Institute section draws its facts from the live Institute and Vein Center pages and the screening page: the outpatient lab at 1022 1st Street North, Alabaster; arterial Doppler and blood pressure testing in the office; an arteriogram for a definitive answer; treatment that removes plaque or places a stent; same-day discharge; the vein center's duplex ultrasound, radiofrequency ablation, phlebectomy, sclerotherapy and acute DVT treatment; and the free screening, which checks ankle-to-arm blood pressure and the leg veins by ultrasound. Neither "Institute" nor the screening is a Baptist Health program, and no claim of outcome is made.

To check · Who we are, first paragraph:. Institute section:. Screening paragraph:. Card 1:. Card 2:. Card 3:. Card 4:.

What This Practice Offers

Cardiac Imaging, Close to Home
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Cardiac Imaging, Close to Home

Heart South has its own cardiac imaging, with echocardiograms and stress testing at its offices and heart scans when your doctor needs a closer look.

Heart Rhythm Care at Shelby
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Heart Rhythm Care at Shelby

Heart South physicians perform heart rhythm procedures in the electrophysiology lab at Baptist Health Shelby Hospital, near where you live.

A Clinic for Blood Thinner Checks
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

A Clinic for Blood Thinner Checks

If you take Coumadin, the practice's own clinic checks your blood and adjusts your dose, so you do not have to do it alone.

Catheterization Through the Wrist
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Catheterization Through the Wrist

Most heart catheterizations are done through the artery in the wrist, which usually means an easier recovery than the groin.

The Heart South Vascular Institute

The Heart South Vascular Institute is the practice's outpatient lab for arteries and veins, at 1022 1st Street North in Alabaster, beside Baptist Health Shelby Hospital. It treats peripheral artery disease, varicose veins and deep vein thrombosis with ultrasound testing, stents and vein procedures, and you go home the same day.

A free vascular screening is available for people with leg pain, swelling or sores that heal slowly, or with risk factors such as smoking, diabetes or high blood pressure. Request it at heartsouthpc.com or call the office.

About this module

Template module · Written block (style guide §11.7), the Heart South Vascular Institute as its own section of this care team page (DECISIONS: "The Heart South Vascular Institute: a section of Heart South's care team page"). Reshaped 2026-10-22 out of Who We Are, which the care team template keeps short.

Meet the Team

Type a city or zip code
Use My Location
Type a doctor's first or last name
Female Male
View Doctors with Online Scheduling
[n] doctors foundMany doctors have multiple practice locations. View the doctor's profile for a complete list of their locationsSort By: A to Z
[Doctor Name 1], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group MemberHeart South Cardiovascular Group
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
[Doctor Name 2], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group MemberHeart South Cardiovascular Group
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
[Doctor Name 3], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group MemberHeart South Cardiovascular Group
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
123›
About this module

Template module · Fills itself, narrowed to this practice: the physicians and advanced practice providers whose profiles name Heart South. Nothing is supplied. No doctor is named in this page's copy.

Our Offices

About this module

Template module · Fills itself from the practice's location records, one row for each of its three offices, each linking to the office building's facility page once the master mints it. The records do not exist yet, so their content is owed and is written here once (Q26; the live office pages). The live site names the offices Shelby, Clanton and Bibb; Q26 names them by town, Alabaster, Clanton and Centreville, and the page uses the towns. A fourth office in Hoover appears in Q29 and is on neither Q26 nor Heart South's own site, so it is left out (the URL map's decisions tab). The live office pages each show the same phone number, and a second number appears in the site header with no office named. The live pages list no hours.

RecordAddressPhoneHoursHeart care here
Heart South Cardiovascular Group, Alabaster1022 1st Street North, Suite 500, Alabaster, AL 35007(205) 663-5775Main office · cardiology visits · echocardiograms · the Heart South Vascular Institute and its vein center
Heart South Cardiovascular Group, Clanton2034 Lay Dam Road, Suite 102, Clanton, AL 35045(205) 663-5775Cardiology visits · echocardiograms
Heart South Cardiovascular Group, Centreville208 Pierson Avenue, Centreville, AL 35042(205) 663-5775Cardiology visits
Heart and Vascular Care

Heart South's cardiologists provide heart and vascular care, including imaging and vascular services.

Learn More About Heart and Vascular Care
Radiology and Diagnostic Imaging

Heart South's cardiac imaging adds to the scans available close to home.

Learn More About Radiology and Diagnostic Imaging

View All Service Lines

About this module

Template modules · All fill themselves, filtered to this practice. The treatments the library holds for it include cardiac catheterization, coronary angioplasty and stents, pacemaker implantation, cardioversion, the loop recorder, the stress tests, Holter monitor, coronary calcium scoring, Doppler ultrasound, vascular angiography, anticoagulation monitoring, endovenous ablation, sclerotherapy and phlebectomy. Nothing is supplied.

Conditions

Coronary artery disease

Coronary artery disease means the arteries that feed your heart have narrowed over time. It is common, it is treated every...

Learn More About Coronary artery disease
Heart failure

Heart failure means the heart pumps with less force than your body needs. It does not mean the heart has stopped. Baptist...

Learn More About Heart failure
Atrial fibrillation

Atrial fibrillation, or AFib, is the most common heart rhythm problem: the upper chambers beat in a fast, irregular pattern....

Learn More About Atrial fibrillation
Heart attack

A heart attack happens when blood flow to part of the heart muscle is suddenly blocked. It is an emergency: call 911....

Learn More About Heart attack
Heart valve disease

Heart valve disease means one or more of the heart's four valves does not open or close as it should. Many people are...

Learn More About Heart valve disease
Peripheral artery disease

Peripheral artery disease means the arteries that bring blood to your legs have narrowed, so your legs get less blood than...

Learn More About Peripheral artery disease

View All Conditions

Treatments

Cardiac catheterization

Cardiac catheterization uses a thin, flexible tube guided through a blood vessel to your heart. It shows your doctor how...

Learn More About Cardiac catheterization
Coronary angioplasty and stents

Coronary angioplasty opens a narrowed or blocked heart artery with a tiny balloon, and a stent, a small mesh tube, keeps it...

Learn More About Coronary angioplasty and stents
Coronary artery bypass surgery

Coronary artery bypass surgery uses a healthy blood vessel from another part of your body to route blood around a blocked...

Learn More About Coronary artery bypass surgery
Cardiac catheter ablation

Cardiac catheter ablation treats an abnormal heart rhythm from inside the heart. Thin tubes guided through a vein find the...

Learn More About Cardiac catheter ablation
Pacemaker implantation

A pacemaker is a small device placed under the skin near your collarbone. It senses a heartbeat that is too slow or pauses,...

Learn More About Pacemaker implantation
Implantable cardioverter-defibrillator placement

An implantable cardioverter-defibrillator, or ICD, is a small device placed under the skin. It watches your heart rhythm...

Learn More About Implantable cardioverter-defibrillator placement

View All Treatments

Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Insurances We Accept

[The plans this team accepts, from its record]

View Hospital Based Insurance
View Physician Based Insurance
About this module

Template module · Fills itself. Nothing is supplied.

Questions People Ask Us

How do I make an appointment?

Book a new patient visit or a follow-up online at heartsouthpc.com, or call the office at (205) 663-5775. If you are having a medical emergency, call 911.

Is Heart South part of Baptist Health now?

Yes. Heart South has joined Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health. It keeps its name and its website while the move onto baptisthealthal.com is finished, so for now you book, pay a bill and use the patient portal at heartsouthpc.com. Your doctors and offices stay the same, and the practice will tell you ahead of any change.

What is the free vascular screening, and is it for me?

It is a free check of the blood flow in your legs and the veins in them. It is for anyone with leg pain, cramping, swelling or heaviness, sores that do not heal, or risk factors such as smoking, diabetes, high blood pressure or high cholesterol. If it finds a problem, the team talks with you about a plan, which may be simple or may include a procedure. See peripheral artery disease.

Where are my procedures done?

Tests and visits happen at the offices. Arterial and vein procedures can be done at the Heart South Vascular Institute in Alabaster, and you go home the same day. Heart rhythm procedures are done in the electrophysiology lab at Baptist Health Shelby Hospital. The team tells you where yours will be done. See cardiac catheter ablation.

Where do I find instructions for preparing for my test?

The practice has a testing prep sheet on its website, and the office will go over it when you schedule. Follow the instructions you were given for your own test, and call the office if anything is unclear. See exercise stress test and nuclear stress test.

About this module

Template module · Written copy. The reader is an existing Heart South patient wondering what the move means, or a new patient deciding whether to book. The first answer is the live site's booking path; the second answers the transition without a date (Q56 sets about January 2027 for the live site, which is a planning date and stays out of the copy). The prep-sheet answer points to a real resource on the live site.

Awards and Accreditations

‹
[Award logo 1]
[Award logo 2]
[Award logo 3]
[Award logo 4]
[Award logo 5]
›

Patient Resources

[Patient Resource 01][One line on what it is]Download Resource
[Patient Resource 02][One line on what it is]Download Resource
[Patient Resource 03][One line on what it is]Download Resource
[Patient Resource 04][One line on what it is]Download Resource

Content Hub | View All

About this module

Template modules · All fill themselves. Nothing is supplied. The practice's live site has a patient stories section, a forms page and a cardiac glossary; the stories render here once they are on the team's record, and the testing prep sheet is a resource. No award or accreditation is confirmed for this practice, so the awards band stays empty.

Draft copy prepared by Marketing Technology, 2026-10-21.

Ready to Get Started?

Request an appointment and the practice will call you to schedule.

Request an Appointment
BHMG Cardiology

Baptist Health Medical Group Cardiology, Anniston

The cardiology practice of Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, in Anniston. Heart care for adults at an office at Baptist Health Calhoun Hospital on Leighton Avenue and an office on Christine Avenue.

Medically Reviewed Content
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library
About this module

Template module · Written copy, the hero description field; 203 characters. The buttons are Call the Office, (256) 231-2577 (the number on the live Suite 702 page), and Find a Location. The online scheduling link for this practice is not known, so no Request an Appointment button appears until it is confirmed.

Research and Evidence for This Page

This page's buttons: Request an Appointment. The Anniston practice books its own visits; one action.
RULINGEvery page's buttons are chosen for the reader who lands on it

A page shows zero, one or two buttons, each reasoned from the moment its reader is in. Leads go where a real decision exists (planning a birth, a diagnosis in pregnancy, a failed screen, a follow-up specialist, a pediatrician for a healthy newborn). A page read by a parent whose baby is in a NICU now offers the page's own help and the support every NICU family gets, never a sales button. No button anywhere asks anyone to choose a NICU.

  • Nobody plans a NICU stay: a baby comes to one from the delivery room or by transfer between hospitals, so a button to find one serves no reader.
  • A baby in a NICU already has its doctors at the bedside, and most families name a pediatrician before discharge, so a pediatrician button on an apnea page sells to nobody.
  • Serving the business and serving the parent are meant to agree: where no honest lead exists, help that keeps the family with Orlando Health is the business value.
  • Two slots are a ceiling, never a quota: a filler button beside a page's one real action comes off.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDRelated services are single service lines, in the designer's Services tab

Related services render as the Services tab of the designer's tabs module, as he drew them: six cards on a line page, each one service line on the ruled list, never two specialties under one name, each with one sentence on how that line joins a newborn's care.

  • The designer's service line and location frames show Services, Conditions and Treatments as three tabs, the Services tab holding six single-line cards with a sentence each.
  • The ruled list of children's service lines carries pediatric hematology and pediatric oncology, pulmonology and sleep medicine, neurology and neurosurgery as separate lines; a combined name matches no page that will exist.
  • A gate refuses any service card whose name is not a ruled line.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDThe page is set in Lufga, the typeface Orlando Health uses, at its three weights

Every page uses Lufga, loaded from orlandohealth.com, at 400, 500 and 700 only. Headings 700, the hero paragraph 500, body and buttons 400.

  • Read on orlandohealth.com, 2026-10-20: the site loads Lufga in three files, Regular 400, Medium 500 and Bold 700, and sets its headings at 700.
  • The designer's frames are set in the same face; an earlier build used a stand-in, which is why its weights read differently beside his frames.

Sources

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDButtons are the designer's slim pills, with an icon in the hero

Pills are about 2.4 times their label tall, regular weight, with no border on solid pills; the two hero pills are equal width across the paragraph, each led by an ink icon chosen from its label. The facility hero's pills carry no icon.

  • Measured across the designer's frames: every pill is 2.3 to 2.5 times its label tall, and the hero pills carry a calendar or a phone before the label.
  • A gate checks every rendered pill against these proportions.

Decided 2026-10-20

RULINGThe Marketer's Playground features what the marketer wants to highlight

The feature accordion is a module, or a set of them, on any page type, for what the marketing team wants to feature about how they market the line or place: a program, a class, an event, parking or language access, a community program, a timely change, a real choice such as planning a high-risk birth. Each row: a headline, a short paragraph, a 5:4 photo, zero, one or two buttons. A row can point to a page that exists; it never repeats a module on the same page.

  • The designer's frames show the row with no button, one button and two buttons.
  • A high-risk birth is the one real choice on the neonatal line, so it is the line page's first row.

Decided 2026-10-20

Who We Are

Baptist Health Medical Group Cardiology is the cardiology practice for patients in and around Anniston. It is part of Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, and its Leighton Avenue office is in the Physician Office Building at Baptist Health Calhoun Hospital, where many heart tests and procedures take place.

Your cardiologist looks into chest pain, shortness of breath, a racing or skipping heartbeat, and high blood pressure; manages long-term heart disease; orders and reads the tests; and works with the hospital's cardiac team when you need a procedure, a device or rehabilitation.

About this module

Template module · Written copy under Who we are, then THE FEATURES. Only one source describes this practice and it names one service, cardiology, so the second paragraph is written from what a general cardiology practice does and is marked. It makes no surgery claim. The hospital's catheterization labs, pacemakers, defibrillators, heart monitors and testing (Calhoun's live Cardiac Services page, which the URL map's decisions tab keeps) appear in the feature cards and on the Calhoun page; the three-phase cardiac rehabilitation is Calhoun's program, with its outpatient phases at the Medical Pavilion (the live rehabilitation page, the URL map's facility tab).

To check · Who we are, second paragraph:. Card 1:. Card 2:. Card 3:.

What This Practice Offers

Cardiac Rehab in Three Phases
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Cardiac Rehab in Three Phases

Rehabilitation begins in the hospital, moves to a supervised exercise program, and continues with check-ins as you recover. It is Calhoun's own program, with the outpatient phases at Medical Pavilion Anniston.

Your Cardiologist, at the Hospital
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Your Cardiologist, at the Hospital

The Leighton Avenue office is in the Physician Office Building at Baptist Health Calhoun Hospital, the hospital where the cardiac catheterization labs and heart tests are.

A Number to Call with Questions
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

A Number to Call with Questions

The hospital's cardiac team will help you schedule an appointment or explain what to expect before you come.

Meet the Team

Type a city or zip code
Use My Location
Type a doctor's first or last name
Female Male
View Doctors with Online Scheduling
[n] doctors foundMany doctors have multiple practice locations. View the doctor's profile for a complete list of their locationsSort By: A to Z
[Doctor Name 1], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group MemberBaptist Health Medical Group Cardiology, Anniston
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
[Doctor Name 2], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group MemberBaptist Health Medical Group Cardiology, Anniston
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
[Doctor Name 3], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group MemberBaptist Health Medical Group Cardiology, Anniston
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
123›
About this module

Template module · Fills itself, narrowed to this practice: the physicians whose profiles name Baptist Health Medical Group Cardiology, Anniston. Nothing is supplied. No doctor is named in this page's copy.

Our Offices

About this module

Template module · Fills itself from the practice's location records, one row for each office in the provider directory, each linking to the office building's facility page once the master mints it. The records do not exist yet, so their content is owed and is written here once. Q26 gives two buildings, 1700 Christine Avenue Suite 100 and 901 Leighton Avenue Suite 702, and the client's September 2026 roster agrees; Calhoun's live site also lists an RMC Cardiology office in Suite 307 whose physician is on neither list, so it is not this practice's office. The Suite 702 phone and hours are the live location page's own. Calhoun's Heart and Vascular Care page lists a cardiac office with another number, (256) 741-6464, and hours of Monday to Friday, 7:30 to 5, and gives the cardiac team line as (256) 235-5121, with no address for either; those are not assigned to an office here.

RecordAddressPhoneHours
Baptist Health Medical Group Cardiology, Anniston (Leighton Avenue, Suite 702)901 Leighton Avenue, Suite 702, Anniston, AL 36207, in the Physician Office Building at Baptist Health Calhoun Hospital(256) 231-2577Monday to Thursday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.; Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Baptist Health Medical Group Cardiology, Anniston (Christine Avenue, Suite 100)1700 Christine Avenue, Suite 100, Anniston, AL 36207(256) 238-1154
Heart and Vascular Care

These cardiologists bring heart and vascular care to Anniston and Calhoun County.

Learn More About Heart and Vascular Care

View All Service Lines

About this module

Template modules · All fill themselves, filtered to this practice. Services holds service lines only (§10.7 rule 30), from bh_heart_related_service_lines.md. The treatments the library holds for the Anniston area include cardiac catheterization, pacemaker implantation, implantable cardioverter-defibrillator placement, the echocardiogram, stress tests and cardiac rehabilitation, all at Calhoun. Nothing is supplied.

Conditions

Coronary artery disease

Coronary artery disease means the arteries that feed your heart have narrowed over time. It is common, it is treated every...

Learn More About Coronary artery disease
Heart failure

Heart failure means the heart pumps with less force than your body needs. It does not mean the heart has stopped. Baptist...

Learn More About Heart failure
Atrial fibrillation

Atrial fibrillation, or AFib, is the most common heart rhythm problem: the upper chambers beat in a fast, irregular pattern....

Learn More About Atrial fibrillation
Heart attack

A heart attack happens when blood flow to part of the heart muscle is suddenly blocked. It is an emergency: call 911....

Learn More About Heart attack
Heart valve disease

Heart valve disease means one or more of the heart's four valves does not open or close as it should. Many people are...

Learn More About Heart valve disease
Heart arrhythmia (tachycardia and bradycardia)

A heart arrhythmia is a problem with the heart's electrical signals, so the heart beats too fast, too slow or unevenly. Many...

Learn More About Heart arrhythmia (tachycardia and bradycardia)

View All Conditions

Treatments

Cardiac catheterization

Cardiac catheterization uses a thin, flexible tube guided through a blood vessel to your heart. It shows your doctor how...

Learn More About Cardiac catheterization
Coronary angioplasty and stents

Coronary angioplasty opens a narrowed or blocked heart artery with a tiny balloon, and a stent, a small mesh tube, keeps it...

Learn More About Coronary angioplasty and stents
Coronary artery bypass surgery

Coronary artery bypass surgery uses a healthy blood vessel from another part of your body to route blood around a blocked...

Learn More About Coronary artery bypass surgery
Pacemaker implantation

A pacemaker is a small device placed under the skin near your collarbone. It senses a heartbeat that is too slow or pauses,...

Learn More About Pacemaker implantation
Implantable cardioverter-defibrillator placement

An implantable cardioverter-defibrillator, or ICD, is a small device placed under the skin. It watches your heart rhythm...

Learn More About Implantable cardioverter-defibrillator placement
Cardiac rehabilitation

A medically supervised program of exercise, education and support that helps you rebuild strength after a heart attack, a...

Learn More About Cardiac rehabilitation

View All Treatments

Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Insurances We Accept

[The plans this team accepts, from its record]

View Hospital Based Insurance
View Physician Based Insurance
About this module

Template module · Fills itself. Nothing is supplied.

Questions People Ask Us

How do I make an appointment?

Call the Leighton Avenue office, Suite 702, at (256) 231-2577, Monday to Thursday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. or Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. For the Christine Avenue office, call (256) 238-1154. You can also call the hospital's cardiac team at (256) 235-5121, and they will help you schedule or explain what to expect. If you are having a medical emergency, call 911.

Do I need a referral?

Many patients come on a primary care doctor's referral, and you can ask the office about booking on your own. Your insurance plan may have its own requirements, so check them before the visit.

Which tests and procedures can I have at Calhoun?

The hospital has cardiac catheterization labs and does pacemaker, defibrillator and heart monitor placement, along with echocardiograms, stress tests, EKGs and ambulatory monitoring, which records your heart rhythm while you go about your day. See Baptist Health Calhoun Hospital, cardiac catheterization and echocardiogram.

What if I need a procedure that is not done at Calhoun?

Your cardiologist tells you which hospital performs it and arranges your care at another Baptist Health hospital. Your Anniston cardiologist stays involved.

How does cardiac rehabilitation work after a heart event?

Calhoun's program runs in three phases: it begins in the hospital, continues with a supervised exercise program, and then moves to outpatient follow-up with check-ins as you recover. The exercise and follow-up phases take place at Medical Pavilion Anniston. See cardiac rehabilitation and Medical Pavilion Anniston.

What are the signs of a heart attack?

Chest pain or pressure, shortness of breath, discomfort in the jaw, neck, shoulders, stomach or back, and unusual tiredness, nausea, vomiting or a cold sweat. Signs can look different in women. Call 911 and do not drive yourself to the hospital. See heart attack.

About this module

Template module · Written copy. The reader is an Anniston-area patient or family, often sent by a primary care doctor or the hospital. The first answer is the live location page's own phone and hours. The last answer is the live Heart and Vascular Care page's heart attack warning list, which states symptoms can look different in women. No answer touches surgery.

Awards and Accreditations

‹
[Award logo 1]
[Award logo 2]
[Award logo 3]
[Award logo 4]
[Award logo 5]
›

Patient Resources

[Patient Resource 01][One line on what it is]Download Resource
[Patient Resource 02][One line on what it is]Download Resource
[Patient Resource 03][One line on what it is]Download Resource
[Patient Resource 04][One line on what it is]Download Resource

Content Hub | View All

About this module

Template modules · All fill themselves. Nothing is supplied. No award or accreditation is confirmed for this practice, so the awards band stays empty. Calhoun's two heart articles are ported to the content hub and render here once they are on the team's record.

Draft copy prepared by Marketing Technology, 2026-10-21.

Ready to Get Started?

Request an appointment and the practice will call you to schedule.

Request an Appointment

Structural Heart Program

When a heart valve or another part of the heart's structure is not working as it should, our team can often repair it through a thin tube placed in a blood vessel, and most people recover faster than after open-heart surgery.

Medically Reviewed Content
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library
About this module

Template module · Written copy (ours, 225 characters). The button calls the Baptist Health Valve Clinic, the patient-facing front desk the client named (Q47); it is the program's own door, so no practice is favored over another.

Research and Evidence for This Page

This page's buttons: Call the Valve Clinic. The Valve Clinic is the program's patient-facing front desk (Q47); one action, and it favors no practice.
RULINGEvery page's buttons are chosen for the reader who lands on it

A page shows zero, one or two buttons, each reasoned from the moment its reader is in. Leads go where a real decision exists (planning a birth, a diagnosis in pregnancy, a failed screen, a follow-up specialist, a pediatrician for a healthy newborn). A page read by a parent whose baby is in a NICU now offers the page's own help and the support every NICU family gets, never a sales button. No button anywhere asks anyone to choose a NICU.

  • Nobody plans a NICU stay: a baby comes to one from the delivery room or by transfer between hospitals, so a button to find one serves no reader.
  • A baby in a NICU already has its doctors at the bedside, and most families name a pediatrician before discharge, so a pediatrician button on an apnea page sells to nobody.
  • Serving the business and serving the parent are meant to agree: where no honest lead exists, help that keeps the family with Orlando Health is the business value.
  • Two slots are a ceiling, never a quota: a filler button beside a page's one real action comes off.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDThe page is set in Lufga, the typeface Orlando Health uses, at its three weights

Every page uses Lufga, loaded from orlandohealth.com, at 400, 500 and 700 only. Headings 700, the hero paragraph 500, body and buttons 400.

  • Read on orlandohealth.com, 2026-10-20: the site loads Lufga in three files, Regular 400, Medium 500 and Bold 700, and sets its headings at 700.
  • The designer's frames are set in the same face; an earlier build used a stand-in, which is why its weights read differently beside his frames.

Sources

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDButtons are the designer's slim pills, with an icon in the hero

Pills are about 2.4 times their label tall, regular weight, with no border on solid pills; the two hero pills are equal width across the paragraph, each led by an ink icon chosen from its label. The facility hero's pills carry no icon.

  • Measured across the designer's frames: every pill is 2.3 to 2.5 times its label tall, and the hero pills carry a calendar or a phone before the label.
  • A gate checks every rendered pill against these proportions.

Decided 2026-10-20

RULINGThe Marketer's Playground features what the marketer wants to highlight

The feature accordion is a module, or a set of them, on any page type, for what the marketing team wants to feature about how they market the line or place: a program, a class, an event, parking or language access, a community program, a timely change, a real choice such as planning a high-risk birth. Each row: a headline, a short paragraph, a 5:4 photo, zero, one or two buttons. A row can point to a page that exists; it never repeats a module on the same page.

  • The designer's frames show the row with no button, one button and two buttons.
  • A high-risk birth is the one real choice on the neonatal line, so it is the line page's first row.

Decided 2026-10-20

Repairing the Heart From the Inside

Your heart's structure includes its four valves, its walls and its chambers. When a valve narrows or leaks, or when a pouch in the heart called the left atrial appendage raises your risk of stroke, a structural heart procedure can repair the problem from inside the heart.

Our program offers transcatheter aortic valve replacement, mitral valve repair with a clip, tricuspid valve repair with a clip and left atrial appendage closure. Cardiologists and a cardiac surgeon review each person's care together, so you hear every option, including valve surgery when it is the better choice. Read more about heart valve disease.

About this module

Template module · Written block (§11.7). What structural heart care is, the procedures the client lists as offered (August and June answers), and why a program: one team that decides together.

How Care Works in the Program

Your first visit. For a valve problem, you begin at the Baptist Health Valve Clinic, where we review your symptoms, your history and the tests you have already had, so nothing is repeated without reason. For left atrial appendage closure, you begin with the cardiologist who follows your heart rhythm.

Tests that guide the plan. An echocardiogram, sometimes taken through the throat, a CT scan of the heart for some procedures, and often a cardiac catheterization show the size and shape of the valve or the appendage and the vessels a catheter would travel through.

One plan, made together. Our heart team reviews your results as a group and explains which procedure fits you, or whether surgery or medicine is the better path.

Your procedure and recovery. Most procedures are done through a small opening in the groin. Many people go home within one to three days, and follow-up echocardiograms check how your heart is working afterward.

About this module

Template module · Written sections with bold lead-ins (the program template). The steps follow the TAVR and mitral clip pages on this line, so the program and the library agree.

More About the Program

The Baptist Health Valve Clinic
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Planning the Next Step for Changing Valve Disease

Our clinic sees people whose valve disease is changing and plans their next step. Find us at 2022 Brookwood Medical Center Drive, Medical Office Building B, Suite 210, Birmingham, or call (205) 877-2901.

A Team That Decides Together
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Cardiologists and Surgeons Review Every Case

Interventional cardiologists and a cardiac surgeon review each case, and heart rhythm specialists join when the plan is to close the left atrial appendage, so the procedure you have is the one that fits your heart and your health.

Getting Stronger After Your Procedure
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Cardiac Rehabilitation to Rebuild Confidence

Cardiac rehabilitation helps you rebuild strength and confidence with supervised exercise and guidance on medicines and daily habits. Button: Call the Valve Clinic → #call

About this module

Library module · The feature accordion (§11.9: 2 to 5 rows). The Valve Clinic row is Q47 in its facts, with the building as the live location record names it (MOB B; Q47's "MOB 2" was a slip, settled by the heart verify ledger H). The rehab row rests on the line's cardiac rehabilitation page (Princeton, Shelby, and Calhoun's program at the Anniston pavilion). Prompts for the marketer: a patient's story after TAVR · a short video from the program director · a "questions to bring to your first visit" sheet.

Meet the Team

Fills itself from this page's own record.

Type a city or zip code
Use My Location
Type a doctor's first or last name
Female Male
View Doctors with Online Scheduling
[n] doctors foundMany doctors have multiple practice locations. View the doctor's profile for a complete list of their locationsSort By: A to Z
[Doctor Name 1], MD [Specialty]OH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
[Doctor Name 2], MD [Specialty]OH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
[Doctor Name 3], MD [Specialty]OH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
123›
About this module

Template module · Fills itself, narrowed to the program's clinicians, its director first: Stephen Bakir, MD, interventional cardiologist, director of the structural heart program (Q38, Q39). The Heart Team the August answers name (Dr. Papoy, Dr. Bakir, Dr. Sample, Dr. Jacob, Dr. Eagan) and the heart rhythm specialists who close the left atrial appendage list here too. Nothing else is supplied.

Where You Are Seen

Fills itself from this page's own record.

About this module

Template module · Fills itself from the program's location records: the Baptist Health Valve Clinic (Q47) and Baptist Health Brookwood Hospital, where TAVR is consolidating (August answers).

Questions People Ask Us

Do I need a referral?

For a valve problem, your cardiologist can refer you, and you can also call the Valve Clinic at (205) 877-2901 to ask about a visit. For left atrial appendage closure, start with the cardiologist who follows your heart rhythm. Bring a list of your medicines and any recent test results.

Is a catheter procedure right for me?

It depends on your valve, your heart and your other health conditions. Our heart team reviews your tests together and explains whether a catheter procedure, surgery or medicine fits you best.

Will I be asleep?

Some procedures use general anesthesia and others use medicine that keeps you relaxed and comfortable. Your team tells you which to expect before the day.

How long will I stay in the hospital?

Many people go home within one to three days. Your team tells you what to expect for your procedure.

What happens after I go home?

You take the medicines your cardiologist prescribes, return for follow-up echocardiograms and build your activity back over a few weeks. After a valve procedure, many people join cardiac rehabilitation.

About this module

Template module · Written copy. Five questions a person weighing a structural procedure asks; each answer agrees with the library page it points to.

Heart and Vascular Care

Cardiologists follow valve disease over time and refer you when a catheter repair may help.

Learn More About Heart and Vascular Care
Radiology and Diagnostic Imaging

CT scans of the heart size the valve and map the vessels a catheter travels through.

Learn More About Radiology and Diagnostic Imaging
Neuroscience

Closing the left atrial appendage lowers stroke risk for people with atrial fibrillation.

Learn More About Neuroscience

View All Service Lines

About this module

Fills itself from the records. A program belongs to no single service line (Kim, 2026-10-20), so the cards are the program's own assortment: the lines it works with and the library pages tied to its subject, never one line's lists.

Conditions

Atrial fibrillation

Atrial fibrillation, or AFib, is the most common heart rhythm problem: the upper chambers beat in a fast, irregular pattern....

Learn More About Atrial fibrillation
Heart valve disease

Heart valve disease means one or more of the heart's four valves does not open or close as it should. Many people are...

Learn More About Heart valve disease

View All Conditions

Treatments

Cardiac catheterization

Cardiac catheterization uses a thin, flexible tube guided through a blood vessel to your heart. It shows your doctor how...

Learn More About Cardiac catheterization
Transcatheter aortic valve replacement

Transcatheter aortic valve replacement, or TAVR, gives you a new aortic valve through a thin tube placed in an artery,...

Learn More About Transcatheter aortic valve replacement
Transcatheter mitral valve repair

Transcatheter mitral valve repair fixes a leaking mitral valve with a small clip placed through a vein in the leg, without...

Learn More About Transcatheter mitral valve repair
Left atrial appendage closure

Left atrial appendage closure seals a small pouch in the heart where clots form in atrial fibrillation, to lower stroke...

Learn More About Left atrial appendage closure
Aortic valve repair or replacement

Aortic valve surgery replaces, or in some cases repairs, the valve that sends blood from your heart to the rest of your...

Learn More About Aortic valve repair or replacement
Cardiac rehabilitation

A medically supervised program of exercise, education and support that helps you rebuild strength after a heart attack, a...

Learn More About Cardiac rehabilitation

View All Treatments

Talk With the Structural Heart Team

Call the Valve Clinic at (205) 877-2901, or ask your cardiologist to refer you.

Call the Valve Clinic

Pulmonary Embolism Response Team

A blood clot in the lungs needs care right away. If you have sudden shortness of breath, chest pain or you cough up blood, call 911. At three of our hospitals, a team of specialists decides together how to treat each clot.

Medically Reviewed Content
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library
About this module

Template module · Written copy (ours, 222 characters). No button: the reader cannot book this team, and the one action that matters, calling 911, is in the copy itself (bh_heart_page_choices.py, the emergency moment: the signs first, no sales button).

Research and Evidence for This Page

This page's buttons: none. A patient reaches the team through a hospital, never by booking (Q51). The action is calling 911, which the hero copy says; a button would be a filler.
RULINGEvery page's buttons are chosen for the reader who lands on it

A page shows zero, one or two buttons, each reasoned from the moment its reader is in. Leads go where a real decision exists (planning a birth, a diagnosis in pregnancy, a failed screen, a follow-up specialist, a pediatrician for a healthy newborn). A page read by a parent whose baby is in a NICU now offers the page's own help and the support every NICU family gets, never a sales button. No button anywhere asks anyone to choose a NICU.

  • Nobody plans a NICU stay: a baby comes to one from the delivery room or by transfer between hospitals, so a button to find one serves no reader.
  • A baby in a NICU already has its doctors at the bedside, and most families name a pediatrician before discharge, so a pediatrician button on an apnea page sells to nobody.
  • Serving the business and serving the parent are meant to agree: where no honest lead exists, help that keeps the family with Orlando Health is the business value.
  • Two slots are a ceiling, never a quota: a filler button beside a page's one real action comes off.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDThe page is set in Lufga, the typeface Orlando Health uses, at its three weights

Every page uses Lufga, loaded from orlandohealth.com, at 400, 500 and 700 only. Headings 700, the hero paragraph 500, body and buttons 400.

  • Read on orlandohealth.com, 2026-10-20: the site loads Lufga in three files, Regular 400, Medium 500 and Bold 700, and sets its headings at 700.
  • The designer's frames are set in the same face; an earlier build used a stand-in, which is why its weights read differently beside his frames.

Sources

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDButtons are the designer's slim pills, with an icon in the hero

Pills are about 2.4 times their label tall, regular weight, with no border on solid pills; the two hero pills are equal width across the paragraph, each led by an ink icon chosen from its label. The facility hero's pills carry no icon.

  • Measured across the designer's frames: every pill is 2.3 to 2.5 times its label tall, and the hero pills carry a calendar or a phone before the label.
  • A gate checks every rendered pill against these proportions.

Decided 2026-10-20

RULINGThe Marketer's Playground features what the marketer wants to highlight

The feature accordion is a module, or a set of them, on any page type, for what the marketing team wants to feature about how they market the line or place: a program, a class, an event, parking or language access, a community program, a timely change, a real choice such as planning a high-risk birth. Each row: a headline, a short paragraph, a 5:4 photo, zero, one or two buttons. A row can point to a page that exists; it never repeats a module on the same page.

  • The designer's frames show the row with no button, one button and two buttons.
  • A high-risk birth is the one real choice on the neonatal line, so it is the line page's first row.

Decided 2026-10-20

Fast, Coordinated Care for a Clot in the Lungs

A pulmonary embolism happens when a blood clot, most often from a vein in the leg, travels to the lungs and blocks blood flow there. Read more about deep vein thrombosis, the leg clot that most often causes it.

At Brookwood, Princeton and Shelby hospitals, our pulmonary embolism response teams review each case and choose the treatment that fits the person, from medicine to a procedure that removes the clot.

About this module

Template module · Written block (§11.7). What a pulmonary embolism is, in the DVT page's words, and what the team does (Q51).

How the Team Cares for You

Finding the clot. A CT scan of the lung arteries shows whether a clot is there, where it is and how large it is. An ultrasound of the heart and blood tests show how hard the clot is making your heart work.

Deciding together. The team reviews your scan, your heart and your bleeding risk, then chooses the treatment that fits you.

Treating the clot. Many people are treated with blood thinners, which stop the clot from growing while your body breaks it down. For a larger clot, the team may deliver clot-dissolving medicine through a thin tube, or remove the clot in a procedure called a thrombectomy.

Care after you leave. Your doctors follow your blood thinner and your recovery, and blood specialists help when clots are hard to explain or keep coming back.

About this module

Template module · Written sections with bold lead-ins (the program template). The test is the DVT page's (CT pulmonary angiography); the treatments are Q51 (thrombectomy or a medical plan) and the June answers (catheter-directed thrombolysis); the follow-up is Q52 and the line's anticoagulation page.

More About the Team

Know the Signs of a Clot in the Lungs
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

When to Call 911

Sudden shortness of breath, chest pain that is worse with a deep breath, a racing heartbeat, lightheadedness or fainting, and coughing up blood. Call 911 and do not drive yourself.

Blood Specialists for Complex Clots
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Hematology Care at Every Baptist Health Hospital

Hematologists, doctors who specialize in blood conditions, care for people with complex clotting problems at every Baptist Health hospital.

Lowering the Chance of Another Clot
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Three Habits That Help Prevent Another Clot

Taking your blood thinner as prescribed, moving often after surgery or on long trips, and keeping your follow-up visits all help prevent another clot.

About this module

Library module · The feature accordion (§11.9: 2 to 5 rows). The signs row repeats the DVT page's call-911 list. The specialists row is Q52. Prompts for the marketer: a patient's story of a clot found and treated · a short video from a team physician · a blood-thinner checklist for going home.

Meet the Team

Fills itself from this page's own record.

Type a city or zip code
Use My Location
Type a doctor's first or last name
Female Male
View Doctors with Online Scheduling
[n] doctors foundMany doctors have multiple practice locations. View the doctor's profile for a complete list of their locationsSort By: A to Z
[Doctor Name 1], MD [Specialty]OH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
[Doctor Name 2], MD [Specialty]OH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
[Doctor Name 3], MD [Specialty]OH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
123›
About this module

Template module · Fills itself, narrowed to the team's clinicians at each hospital. Nothing is supplied.

Where the Team Works

Fills itself from this page's own record.

About this module

Template module · Fills itself from the team's location records: Baptist Health Brookwood Hospital, Baptist Health Princeton Hospital and Baptist Health Shelby Hospital (Q51).

Questions People Ask Us

How do I reach the team?

You do not need an appointment. If you have signs of a clot in the lungs, call 911. At Brookwood, Princeton and Shelby hospitals, the response team is brought in when a clot is found.

Will I need a procedure?

Many people recover with blood thinners alone. The team recommends a procedure when a clot is large or is straining the heart, and explains why before it begins.

How long will I take a blood thinner?

Most people take one for at least a few months, and some for longer. Your doctor decides with you based on what caused the clot and your risk of another.

Can it happen again?

It can, which is why follow-up matters. Taking your blood thinner as prescribed and keeping your visits lower the chance of another clot.

What should my family watch for?

Call 911 for new or worse shortness of breath, chest pain, fainting, coughing up blood, or, on a blood thinner, bleeding that will not stop or black or bloody stools. Call the doctor the same day for new swelling, pain or warmth in a leg, or for bruising or minor bleeding that worries you.

About this module

Template module · Written copy. Five questions a patient or family asks after a pulmonary embolism; the blood-thinner length is said generally and points to the patient's own doctor.

Emergency and Trauma Care

Emergency care is often where a clot in the lungs is first found and treated.

Learn More About Emergency and Trauma Care
Pulmonary and Critical Care

Lung and intensive care specialists support people whose breathing is strained by a clot.

Learn More About Pulmonary and Critical Care
Heart and Vascular Care

Heart and vessel specialists check the strain on the heart and treat large clots with a catheter.

Learn More About Heart and Vascular Care
Radiology and Diagnostic Imaging

A CT scan of the lung arteries shows where a clot is and how much blood flow it blocks.

Learn More About Radiology and Diagnostic Imaging

View All Service Lines

About this module

Fills itself from the records. A program belongs to no single service line (Kim, 2026-10-20), so the cards are the program's own assortment: the lines it works with and the library pages tied to its subject, never one line's lists.

Conditions

Deep vein thrombosis

Deep vein thrombosis, or DVT, is a blood clot in a deep vein, most often in the leg. It is treatable, and a quick, painless...

Learn More About Deep vein thrombosis

View All Conditions

Treatments

Anticoagulation therapy and monitoring

Anticoagulants, often called blood thinners, lower the chance that a dangerous clot forms. If you take warfarin (Coumadin),...

Learn More About Anticoagulation therapy and monitoring

View All Treatments

Heart and Vascular Programs

The programs on this line, each bringing a team together around one condition, one approach to care or one group of patients. Each page explains who it is for, what it offers and where.

Search by First Letter

Anticoagulation therapy and monitoring

Anticoagulants, often called blood thinners, lower the chance that a dangerous clot forms. If you take warfarin (Coumadin), regular blood checks guide your dose. Heart South's Coumadin clinic watches your results closely and adjusts your medicine when needed, so you stay in a safe range.

Learn More
Aortic aneurysm

An aortic aneurysm is a weakened, bulging spot in the aorta, the body's largest blood vessel. Many cause no symptoms and are found by scan, then watched over time. Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, offers screening, monitoring and repair across Alabama.

Learn More
Aortic valve repair or replacement

Aortic valve surgery replaces, or in some cases repairs, the valve that sends blood from your heart to the rest of your body. It relieves breathlessness, chest pressure and fainting caused by a narrowed or leaking valve.

Learn More
Atrial fibrillation

Atrial fibrillation, or AFib, is the most common heart rhythm problem: the upper chambers beat in a fast, irregular pattern. It is manageable, and Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, treats it with heart rhythm specialists, testing, procedures and follow-up across Alabama.

Learn More
Cardiac catheter ablation

Cardiac catheter ablation treats an abnormal heart rhythm from inside the heart. Thin tubes guided through a vein find the tiny area sending faulty signals, and energy treats it. It can lessen or end palpitations and other symptoms of an arrhythmia.

Learn More
Cardiac catheterization

Cardiac catheterization uses a thin, flexible tube guided through a blood vessel to your heart. It shows your doctor how well your arteries and heart are working, and it can find a blockage. Many people go home the same day.

Learn More
Cardiac rehabilitation

A medically supervised program of exercise, education and support that helps you rebuild strength after a heart attack, a stent, heart surgery or a heart failure diagnosis. Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, offers cardiac rehabilitation at Princeton, Shelby and Calhoun hospitals. Most programs run 36 sessions.

Learn More
Cardioversion

Cardioversion resets a heart that is beating too fast or out of rhythm, most often in atrial fibrillation. You are given medicine to sleep, a timed electrical shock restores a regular beat, and most people go home the same day.

Learn More
Carotid artery disease

Carotid artery disease means the arteries on each side of your neck, which supply your brain, have narrowed. It often causes no symptoms, and it is found with a painless ultrasound. Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, offers monitoring, stenting and surgery across Alabama.

Learn More
Coronary angioplasty and stents

Coronary angioplasty opens a narrowed or blocked heart artery with a tiny balloon, and a stent, a small mesh tube, keeps it open. It treats chest pain from coronary artery disease and restores blood flow during a heart attack.

Learn More
Coronary artery bypass surgery

Coronary artery bypass surgery uses a healthy blood vessel from another part of your body to route blood around a blocked heart artery. It is a major operation that relieves chest pain and helps blood reach your heart muscle again.

Learn More
Coronary artery disease

Coronary artery disease means the arteries that feed your heart have narrowed over time. It is common, it is treated every day, and most people manage it for years. Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, cares for it across its Alabama practices and hospitals.

Learn More
Coronary calcium scoring

A quick heart scan that measures the calcium in your heart's arteries, an early sign of plaque build-up. It needs no dye, no needles and no fasting, and the scan itself takes about five minutes. Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, offers it through Heart South, and your score helps your doctor judge your risk.

Learn More
Deep vein thrombosis

Deep vein thrombosis, or DVT, is a blood clot in a deep vein, most often in the leg. It is treatable, and a quick, painless ultrasound finds it. Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, diagnoses and treats DVT, and three of its hospitals have teams ready for a clot in the lungs.

Learn More
Doppler ultrasound

A Doppler ultrasound uses sound waves to show how blood moves through the veins and arteries in your arms, legs and neck. It involves no needles, no dye and no radiation, and it helps your care team find a blockage, a clot or a leaking vein.

Learn More
Echocardiogram

A painless ultrasound of your heart. Sound waves make a moving picture that shows the size and thickness of your heart, how well it pumps and how its four valves open and close. Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, offers echocardiograms at its hospitals and at heart practice offices across Alabama.

Learn More
Endovenous ablation

Endovenous ablation closes a leaking varicose vein from the inside. Guided by ultrasound, your doctor places a thin catheter in the vein and heats its wall, and blood reroutes through healthy veins. The procedure takes place in the office, and most people walk out afterward and return to daily life within days.

Learn More
Exercise stress test

A test that records your heart's rhythm and blood pressure while you walk on a treadmill, to show how your heart responds when it works harder. It helps your doctor find heart disease, rhythm problems and damage. If you cannot exercise, medicine can give your heart the same stress.

Learn More
Heart arrhythmia (tachycardia and bradycardia)

A heart arrhythmia is a problem with the heart's electrical signals, so the heart beats too fast, too slow or unevenly. Many are manageable. Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, offers rhythm testing, ablation and devices through heart rhythm specialists in Alabama.

Learn More
Heart attack

A heart attack happens when blood flow to part of the heart muscle is suddenly blocked. It is an emergency: call 911. Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, provides emergency heart care, then follow-up and rehabilitation close to home across Alabama.

Learn More
Heart failure

Heart failure means the heart pumps with less force than your body needs. It does not mean the heart has stopped. Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, manages it through its cardiologists across Alabama, with testing, medicine and follow-up close to home.

Learn More
Heart valve disease

Heart valve disease means one or more of the heart's four valves does not open or close as it should. Many people are monitored for years. Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, offers valve testing, a Valve Clinic, catheter-based valve procedures and valve surgery in Alabama.

Learn More
Holter monitor

A small, wearable heart recorder that tracks your heart's rhythm for a day or two while you go about your normal day. It helps your doctor find rhythm problems that come and go, such as skipped beats, a racing heart or pauses. Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, offers heart rhythm monitoring in its Alabama heart practices and hospitals.

Learn More
Implantable cardiac loop recorder placement

An implantable loop recorder is a very small device placed just under the skin of your chest. It records your heart rhythm for months or years, so your doctor can find out why you faint, feel palpitations, or have had a stroke with no clear cause.

Learn More
Implantable cardioverter-defibrillator placement

An implantable cardioverter-defibrillator, or ICD, is a small device placed under the skin. It watches your heart rhythm around the clock and treats a dangerously fast rhythm, with pacing or a shock, to protect you from sudden cardiac arrest.

Learn More
Left atrial appendage closure

Left atrial appendage closure seals a small pouch in the heart where clots form in atrial fibrillation, to lower stroke risk. It is a one-time catheter procedure for people who cannot stay on blood thinners for life.

Learn More
Mitral valve repair or replacement

Mitral valve surgery repairs a leaking or narrowed valve between the upper and lower left chambers of your heart, or replaces it when repair is not possible. Your surgeon chooses the best option for your valve and your health.

Learn More
Nuclear stress test

A heart imaging test that compares pictures of your heart at rest and under stress, using a small amount of radioactive tracer to show how well blood reaches your heart muscle. Stress comes from treadmill exercise or from medicine. Plan on three to four hours at Heart South's office.

Learn More
Pacemaker implantation

A pacemaker is a small device placed under the skin near your collarbone. It senses a heartbeat that is too slow or pauses, and sends a small electrical signal that keeps your heart beating at a regular rate.

Learn More
Peripheral artery angioplasty and stenting

Angioplasty and stenting open a narrowed artery in the leg or elsewhere outside the heart, using a thin tube and a tiny balloon. It can ease leg pain when walking and helps blood reach tissue that needs it. Most people go home the same day.

Learn More
Peripheral artery disease

Peripheral artery disease means the arteries that bring blood to your legs have narrowed, so your legs get less blood than they need. It is common, it can be found with a painless test, and it responds to care. Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, treats it across Alabama.

Learn More
Phlebectomy

Phlebectomy removes varicose veins through tiny punctures or small cuts in the skin. Numbing medicine keeps the area free of pain, and the procedure treats bulging surface veins that cause aching, heaviness and swelling. Many people go home the same day and walk right away.

Learn More
Pulmonary Embolism Response Team

Specialists at three Baptist Health hospitals who decide together how to treat a blood clot in the lungs.

Learn More
Sclerotherapy for varicose veins

Sclerotherapy treats spider veins and varicose veins with a small injection. A medicine goes into the affected vein, the vein shrinks, and blood moves through healthier veins. Visits are short, and some people need a series of treatments to reach the result they want.

Learn More
Structural Heart Program

A team that repairs heart valves and closes the heart's appendage through a small tube, often instead of open-heart surgery.

Learn More
Transcatheter aortic valve replacement

Transcatheter aortic valve replacement, or TAVR, gives you a new aortic valve through a thin tube placed in an artery, without opening your chest. It treats severe aortic stenosis, and a team of heart doctors decides together whether it is right for you.

Learn More
Transcatheter mitral valve repair

Transcatheter mitral valve repair fixes a leaking mitral valve with a small clip placed through a vein in the leg, without opening the chest. It can ease breathlessness and tiredness for people whose valve leaks and who are weighing surgery.

Learn More
Varicose veins

Varicose veins are enlarged, twisted veins near the skin, usually in the legs, caused by weakened vein valves. They can ache, swell and itch, and they respond to minimally invasive care. Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, treats them at the Baptist Health Vein Center in Hoover.

Learn More
Vascular angiography

Vascular angiography is an X-ray test that shows the inside of your blood vessels. Your care team injects contrast dye, takes images as it flows through your arteries or veins, and can see narrowings, blockages and other changes in your legs, neck, belly or arms.

Learn More

Heart and Vascular Conditions

The heart and blood vessel conditions our teams diagnose and treat, from heart attack and arrhythmia to valve, artery and vein disease. Each page explains the condition, its warning signs and how it is treated.

Search by First Letter

Anticoagulation therapy and monitoring

Anticoagulants, often called blood thinners, lower the chance that a dangerous clot forms. If you take warfarin (Coumadin), regular blood checks guide your dose. Heart South's Coumadin clinic watches your results closely and adjusts your medicine when needed, so you stay in a safe range.

Learn More
Aortic aneurysm

An aortic aneurysm is a weakened, bulging spot in the aorta, the body's largest blood vessel. Many cause no symptoms and are found by scan, then watched over time. Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, offers screening, monitoring and repair across Alabama.

Learn More
Aortic valve repair or replacement

Aortic valve surgery replaces, or in some cases repairs, the valve that sends blood from your heart to the rest of your body. It relieves breathlessness, chest pressure and fainting caused by a narrowed or leaking valve.

Learn More
Atrial fibrillation

Atrial fibrillation, or AFib, is the most common heart rhythm problem: the upper chambers beat in a fast, irregular pattern. It is manageable, and Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, treats it with heart rhythm specialists, testing, procedures and follow-up across Alabama.

Learn More
Cardiac catheter ablation

Cardiac catheter ablation treats an abnormal heart rhythm from inside the heart. Thin tubes guided through a vein find the tiny area sending faulty signals, and energy treats it. It can lessen or end palpitations and other symptoms of an arrhythmia.

Learn More
Cardiac catheterization

Cardiac catheterization uses a thin, flexible tube guided through a blood vessel to your heart. It shows your doctor how well your arteries and heart are working, and it can find a blockage. Many people go home the same day.

Learn More
Cardiac rehabilitation

A medically supervised program of exercise, education and support that helps you rebuild strength after a heart attack, a stent, heart surgery or a heart failure diagnosis. Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, offers cardiac rehabilitation at Princeton, Shelby and Calhoun hospitals. Most programs run 36 sessions.

Learn More
Cardioversion

Cardioversion resets a heart that is beating too fast or out of rhythm, most often in atrial fibrillation. You are given medicine to sleep, a timed electrical shock restores a regular beat, and most people go home the same day.

Learn More
Carotid artery disease

Carotid artery disease means the arteries on each side of your neck, which supply your brain, have narrowed. It often causes no symptoms, and it is found with a painless ultrasound. Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, offers monitoring, stenting and surgery across Alabama.

Learn More
Coronary angioplasty and stents

Coronary angioplasty opens a narrowed or blocked heart artery with a tiny balloon, and a stent, a small mesh tube, keeps it open. It treats chest pain from coronary artery disease and restores blood flow during a heart attack.

Learn More
Coronary artery bypass surgery

Coronary artery bypass surgery uses a healthy blood vessel from another part of your body to route blood around a blocked heart artery. It is a major operation that relieves chest pain and helps blood reach your heart muscle again.

Learn More
Coronary artery disease

Coronary artery disease means the arteries that feed your heart have narrowed over time. It is common, it is treated every day, and most people manage it for years. Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, cares for it across its Alabama practices and hospitals.

Learn More
Coronary calcium scoring

A quick heart scan that measures the calcium in your heart's arteries, an early sign of plaque build-up. It needs no dye, no needles and no fasting, and the scan itself takes about five minutes. Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, offers it through Heart South, and your score helps your doctor judge your risk.

Learn More
Deep vein thrombosis

Deep vein thrombosis, or DVT, is a blood clot in a deep vein, most often in the leg. It is treatable, and a quick, painless ultrasound finds it. Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, diagnoses and treats DVT, and three of its hospitals have teams ready for a clot in the lungs.

Learn More
Doppler ultrasound

A Doppler ultrasound uses sound waves to show how blood moves through the veins and arteries in your arms, legs and neck. It involves no needles, no dye and no radiation, and it helps your care team find a blockage, a clot or a leaking vein.

Learn More
Echocardiogram

A painless ultrasound of your heart. Sound waves make a moving picture that shows the size and thickness of your heart, how well it pumps and how its four valves open and close. Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, offers echocardiograms at its hospitals and at heart practice offices across Alabama.

Learn More
Endovenous ablation

Endovenous ablation closes a leaking varicose vein from the inside. Guided by ultrasound, your doctor places a thin catheter in the vein and heats its wall, and blood reroutes through healthy veins. The procedure takes place in the office, and most people walk out afterward and return to daily life within days.

Learn More
Exercise stress test

A test that records your heart's rhythm and blood pressure while you walk on a treadmill, to show how your heart responds when it works harder. It helps your doctor find heart disease, rhythm problems and damage. If you cannot exercise, medicine can give your heart the same stress.

Learn More
Heart arrhythmia (tachycardia and bradycardia)

A heart arrhythmia is a problem with the heart's electrical signals, so the heart beats too fast, too slow or unevenly. Many are manageable. Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, offers rhythm testing, ablation and devices through heart rhythm specialists in Alabama.

Learn More
Heart attack

A heart attack happens when blood flow to part of the heart muscle is suddenly blocked. It is an emergency: call 911. Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, provides emergency heart care, then follow-up and rehabilitation close to home across Alabama.

Learn More
Heart failure

Heart failure means the heart pumps with less force than your body needs. It does not mean the heart has stopped. Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, manages it through its cardiologists across Alabama, with testing, medicine and follow-up close to home.

Learn More
Heart valve disease

Heart valve disease means one or more of the heart's four valves does not open or close as it should. Many people are monitored for years. Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, offers valve testing, a Valve Clinic, catheter-based valve procedures and valve surgery in Alabama.

Learn More
Holter monitor

A small, wearable heart recorder that tracks your heart's rhythm for a day or two while you go about your normal day. It helps your doctor find rhythm problems that come and go, such as skipped beats, a racing heart or pauses. Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, offers heart rhythm monitoring in its Alabama heart practices and hospitals.

Learn More
Implantable cardiac loop recorder placement

An implantable loop recorder is a very small device placed just under the skin of your chest. It records your heart rhythm for months or years, so your doctor can find out why you faint, feel palpitations, or have had a stroke with no clear cause.

Learn More
Implantable cardioverter-defibrillator placement

An implantable cardioverter-defibrillator, or ICD, is a small device placed under the skin. It watches your heart rhythm around the clock and treats a dangerously fast rhythm, with pacing or a shock, to protect you from sudden cardiac arrest.

Learn More
Left atrial appendage closure

Left atrial appendage closure seals a small pouch in the heart where clots form in atrial fibrillation, to lower stroke risk. It is a one-time catheter procedure for people who cannot stay on blood thinners for life.

Learn More
Mitral valve repair or replacement

Mitral valve surgery repairs a leaking or narrowed valve between the upper and lower left chambers of your heart, or replaces it when repair is not possible. Your surgeon chooses the best option for your valve and your health.

Learn More
Nuclear stress test

A heart imaging test that compares pictures of your heart at rest and under stress, using a small amount of radioactive tracer to show how well blood reaches your heart muscle. Stress comes from treadmill exercise or from medicine. Plan on three to four hours at Heart South's office.

Learn More
Pacemaker implantation

A pacemaker is a small device placed under the skin near your collarbone. It senses a heartbeat that is too slow or pauses, and sends a small electrical signal that keeps your heart beating at a regular rate.

Learn More
Peripheral artery angioplasty and stenting

Angioplasty and stenting open a narrowed artery in the leg or elsewhere outside the heart, using a thin tube and a tiny balloon. It can ease leg pain when walking and helps blood reach tissue that needs it. Most people go home the same day.

Learn More
Peripheral artery disease

Peripheral artery disease means the arteries that bring blood to your legs have narrowed, so your legs get less blood than they need. It is common, it can be found with a painless test, and it responds to care. Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, treats it across Alabama.

Learn More
Phlebectomy

Phlebectomy removes varicose veins through tiny punctures or small cuts in the skin. Numbing medicine keeps the area free of pain, and the procedure treats bulging surface veins that cause aching, heaviness and swelling. Many people go home the same day and walk right away.

Learn More
Pulmonary Embolism Response Team

Specialists at three Baptist Health hospitals who decide together how to treat a blood clot in the lungs.

Learn More
Sclerotherapy for varicose veins

Sclerotherapy treats spider veins and varicose veins with a small injection. A medicine goes into the affected vein, the vein shrinks, and blood moves through healthier veins. Visits are short, and some people need a series of treatments to reach the result they want.

Learn More
Structural Heart Program

A team that repairs heart valves and closes the heart's appendage through a small tube, often instead of open-heart surgery.

Learn More
Transcatheter aortic valve replacement

Transcatheter aortic valve replacement, or TAVR, gives you a new aortic valve through a thin tube placed in an artery, without opening your chest. It treats severe aortic stenosis, and a team of heart doctors decides together whether it is right for you.

Learn More
Transcatheter mitral valve repair

Transcatheter mitral valve repair fixes a leaking mitral valve with a small clip placed through a vein in the leg, without opening the chest. It can ease breathlessness and tiredness for people whose valve leaks and who are weighing surgery.

Learn More
Varicose veins

Varicose veins are enlarged, twisted veins near the skin, usually in the legs, caused by weakened vein valves. They can ache, swell and itch, and they respond to minimally invasive care. Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, treats them at the Baptist Health Vein Center in Hoover.

Learn More
Vascular angiography

Vascular angiography is an X-ray test that shows the inside of your blood vessels. Your care team injects contrast dye, takes images as it flows through your arteries or veins, and can see narrowings, blockages and other changes in your legs, neck, belly or arms.

Learn More

Coronary Artery Disease

Coronary artery disease means the arteries that feed your heart have narrowed over time. It is common, it is treated every day, and most people manage it for years. Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, cares for it across its Alabama practices and hospitals.

Medically Reviewed Content
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Research and Evidence for This Page

This page's buttons: Find a Cardiologist. Read by someone with a diagnosis or symptoms: the real decision is which cardiologist, so the one door is the doctor finder; the practices the page names lead its Services tab.
RULINGEvery page's buttons are chosen for the reader who lands on it

A page shows zero, one or two buttons, each reasoned from the moment its reader is in. Leads go where a real decision exists (planning a birth, a diagnosis in pregnancy, a failed screen, a follow-up specialist, a pediatrician for a healthy newborn). A page read by a parent whose baby is in a NICU now offers the page's own help and the support every NICU family gets, never a sales button. No button anywhere asks anyone to choose a NICU.

  • Nobody plans a NICU stay: a baby comes to one from the delivery room or by transfer between hospitals, so a button to find one serves no reader.
  • A baby in a NICU already has its doctors at the bedside, and most families name a pediatrician before discharge, so a pediatrician button on an apnea page sells to nobody.
  • Serving the business and serving the parent are meant to agree: where no honest lead exists, help that keeps the family with Orlando Health is the business value.
  • Two slots are a ceiling, never a quota: a filler button beside a page's one real action comes off.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDRelated services are single service lines, in the designer's Services tab

Related services render as the Services tab of the designer's tabs module, as he drew them: six cards on a line page, each one service line on the ruled list, never two specialties under one name, each with one sentence on how that line joins a newborn's care.

  • The designer's service line and location frames show Services, Conditions and Treatments as three tabs, the Services tab holding six single-line cards with a sentence each.
  • The ruled list of children's service lines carries pediatric hematology and pediatric oncology, pulmonology and sleep medicine, neurology and neurosurgery as separate lines; a combined name matches no page that will exist.
  • A gate refuses any service card whose name is not a ruled line.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDThe page is set in Lufga, the typeface Orlando Health uses, at its three weights

Every page uses Lufga, loaded from orlandohealth.com, at 400, 500 and 700 only. Headings 700, the hero paragraph 500, body and buttons 400.

  • Read on orlandohealth.com, 2026-10-20: the site loads Lufga in three files, Regular 400, Medium 500 and Bold 700, and sets its headings at 700.
  • The designer's frames are set in the same face; an earlier build used a stand-in, which is why its weights read differently beside his frames.

Sources

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDButtons are the designer's slim pills, with an icon in the hero

Pills are about 2.4 times their label tall, regular weight, with no border on solid pills; the two hero pills are equal width across the paragraph, each led by an ink icon chosen from its label. The facility hero's pills carry no icon.

  • Measured across the designer's frames: every pill is 2.3 to 2.5 times its label tall, and the hero pills carry a calendar or a phone before the label.
  • A gate checks every rendered pill against these proportions.

Decided 2026-10-20

RESEARCHBreadcrumbs show a page's place in the site; a back link and the line card give the way back

A library page's breadcrumbs follow its address (Home, Health Library, Conditions, the page), because one condition page serves every line that treats it. The way back to the line comes from two other places: the first card in the page's Services tab is the line itself, always; and a visitor who arrived from a line, unit, team or program page also sees a Back link at the right of the crumb bar, naming that page.

  • Breadcrumbs should show a page's place in the site's hierarchy, never the visitor's history; history trails grow long and repetitive and do nothing for a visitor who arrives from search.
  • A page with more than one parent shows one canonical trail for everyone, which keeps the page's signal to search engines consistent.
  • A separate link back to where the visitor came from is a common pattern (a store's Back to Results) and leaves the canonical trail untouched.
  • Tested in the demo: a parent reading condition pages could not find the way back to the Neonatal Care page.

Sources

Decided 2026-10-21

You may have heard the words from your doctor after a test, or felt a tightness in your chest on the stairs and wondered what it was. Coronary artery disease, often called CAD, is the most common reason a heart needs care. It usually builds slowly, and for most people it is a condition to manage over time, with a plan.

CAD happens when the coronary arteries, the blood vessels that feed your heart muscle, narrow because plaque has built up along their walls. Less blood reaches the heart, most noticeably when you are active. Some people feel chest pressure. Some feel only tiredness or breathlessness. Some feel nothing until a test finds it.

Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, treats CAD across its Alabama practices and hospitals, from the first appointment and testing through catheterization, stents, bypass surgery and cardiac rehabilitation. Your cardiologist follows you over time, so the people who know your heart are the ones adjusting your plan.

What Is Coronary Artery Disease?

Your heart is a muscle, and like every muscle it needs a constant supply of oxygen-rich blood, which the coronary arteries deliver. In CAD, a fatty material called plaque collects along the inner walls of these arteries, so they stiffen and narrow and less blood gets through.

CAD usually develops over many years without symptoms, which is why checkups and risk screening help: once it is found, it can often be slowed.

Sometimes a piece of plaque breaks open and a blood clot forms on it. The clot can block blood flow to part of the heart muscle, which is a heart attack (see Heart attack). CAD is the underlying disease, and treatment aims to keep that from happening.

Symptoms of Coronary Artery Disease

  • Chest pain, pressure or tightness, most often during activity or strong emotion. Doctors call this angina. It usually eases with rest.
  • Discomfort that spreads to the arm, shoulder, neck, jaw or back.
  • Shortness of breath with effort, and sometimes at rest.
  • Unusual tiredness, dizziness, lightheadedness or nausea.
  • A fast or uneven heartbeat.

Women, older adults and people with diabetes often feel less typical symptoms: fatigue, breathlessness, or a mild ache in the back or jaw without any chest pressure.

When to Get Help Now

Call 911 or go to the emergency department for:

  • Chest pain, pressure or tightness that is sudden, severe, or different from anything you have felt before, especially with shortness of breath, sweating, nausea, or pain spreading to the arm, back or jaw.
  • A feeling that something is seriously wrong, even without classic chest pain. Some people, women and people with diabetes in particular, have a heart attack this way. Treat that feeling as real.
  • Angina that is new, comes at rest, comes more often or with less effort than before, or lasts longer than usual or does not ease with rest. This can be unstable angina.

Call 911 and do not drive yourself. Paramedics begin care the moment they arrive, and the dispatcher can tell you whether to chew an aspirin while you wait.

Call your care team the same day for:

  • New shortness of breath or tiredness with activities you used to manage.
  • Side effects from a heart medicine, or a question about stopping one.

When you cannot tell which list you are in, call and describe what is happening; if nobody can be reached and it looks like the first list, go.

Causes of Coronary Artery Disease

CAD is caused by atherosclerosis: plaque made of cholesterol, fats, calcium and other substances builds up in the coronary artery walls over many years. Damage to the artery lining from high blood pressure, high cholesterol, smoking or high blood sugar helps plaque collect and grow.

Risk Factors for Coronary Artery Disease

Having risk factors does not mean you will develop CAD; they help your care team decide how closely to watch your heart.

  • Age. Risk rises over time, particularly for men over 45 and women over 55.
  • Family history of heart disease, especially a parent or sibling diagnosed young.
  • Smoking or past tobacco use.
  • High blood pressure and high cholesterol, particularly a high LDL ("bad") cholesterol.
  • Diabetes or prediabetes.
  • Excess weight, physical inactivity, and eating patterns high in saturated fat, trans fat and processed foods.
  • Sleep apnea and ongoing stress.
  • Preeclampsia or gestational diabetes during a past pregnancy.

Prevention of Coronary Artery Disease

Many risk factors can be changed, which lowers the risk of CAD and slows it once it is there. Not using tobacco, keeping blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar in range, staying active, eating mostly vegetables, fruit, whole grains and lean protein, and reaching a healthy weight all help. Ask your doctor when to start checking cholesterol and blood pressure.

Diagnosis of Coronary Artery Disease

A cardiac evaluation starts with a conversation about your symptoms, your family history and your health, followed by a physical exam. Your cardiologist may then use one or more tests, chosen for you.

  • Electrocardiogram (EKG). Records your heart's electrical activity.
  • Stress test. Shows how your heart responds when it works harder, on a treadmill or with medicine if you cannot exercise: the exercise stress test or the nuclear stress test.
  • Echocardiogram. An ultrasound of the heart's structure and pumping.
  • Coronary calcium scoring. A CT scan that measures calcium in the coronary arteries.
  • Coronary CT angiography. Detailed images of the arteries that can show plaque and narrowing.
  • Cardiac catheterization. A thin tube guided to the coronary arteries to measure blood flow and find blockages. It is the most precise test and can lead straight into treatment.

Treatment Options for Coronary Artery Disease

The right plan depends on where and how narrow your arteries are, your symptoms and your overall health.

Medicines and Daily Habits

Medicines that lower cholesterol and blood pressure, ease angina and reduce clot risk, together with food, movement and quitting tobacco, are the foundation of almost every plan, and many people need nothing beyond them.

Procedures and Surgery

Angioplasty and stents open a narrowed artery with a small balloon and hold it open with a tiny mesh tube, through a thin tube in the wrist or groin. Coronary artery bypass surgery is open-heart surgery that builds a new route for blood around blocked arteries, used when several arteries are involved or the blockages are hard to treat with a stent.

Stent or bypass? A stent opens one or a few blockages from the inside, with a quicker recovery; bypass reroutes blood around several blockages or ones in difficult places. For more complex disease, your cardiologist and a heart surgeon review your arteries together and talk it through with you.

Rehabilitation

Cardiac rehabilitation is a supervised program of exercise and education after a heart event or procedure.

Your plan is your own, made with your care team. Questions are expected, and a second opinion is welcome.

Living With Coronary Artery Disease

CAD is managed over time, with follow-up visits that keep your plan matched to your life. The habits that help most: take your medicines every day, including days you feel well; stay active the way your team sets out; stop tobacco; eat in a way that supports your heart; and bring any change in symptoms to your team early.

Chaplains are available at Baptist Health hospitals for patients and families who would like spiritual support during a hard diagnosis.

When to Talk to Your Care Team

Bring your medicine list to each visit, and note how far you can walk before chest discomfort or breathlessness starts. Tell your team right away when that distance shortens, and tell them when a medicine causes side effects or before you stop any heart medicine.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is angina, and how is it different from a heart attack?

Angina is chest discomfort that comes when the heart muscle is not getting enough blood, usually during exertion or stress. It often eases with rest. A heart attack is damage to the heart muscle from a blocked artery. If chest discomfort is new, severe or does not ease with rest, call 911.

Can coronary artery disease be reversed?

Plaque that has built up usually cannot be fully reversed. Its progression can often be slowed, and with treatment and lifestyle changes many people notice improvements in how they feel. What is realistic depends on the extent of your disease, so it is a question for your cardiologist.

If I have no symptoms, do I still need to think about CAD?

Yes. CAD can be significant without symptoms. Regular checkups, a talk with your doctor about your risk factors, and screening when your doctor recommends it can find it early.

Is CAD hereditary?

Family history raises risk, especially a parent or sibling diagnosed young, but it does not mean you will have CAD. Share it with your care team.

Can I exercise with coronary artery disease?

For most people, yes, and regular activity is part of treatment. Ask your cardiologist what is right for you before starting something new. If activity brings on chest discomfort, stop and rest; if it does not ease within a few minutes, call 911. Cardiac rehabilitation is a supervised place to begin after a heart event or procedure.

Who Treats It and Where

Each practice books through its own scheduling link.

Type a city or zip code
Use My Location
Type a doctor's first or last name
Female Male
View Doctors with Online Scheduling
[n] doctors foundMany doctors have multiple practice locations. View the doctor's profile for a complete list of their locationsSort By: A to Z
[Doctor Name 1], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
[Doctor Name 2], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
[Doctor Name 3], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
123›

Related Pages

Related Service Lines
Heart and Vascular Care

Cardiologists diagnose narrowed heart arteries and treat them with medicine, stents or bypass surgery.

Learn More About Heart and Vascular Care
Endocrinology and Diabetes

Keeping diabetes in range slows the plaque buildup that narrows the coronary arteries.

Learn More About Endocrinology and Diabetes
Primary Care

Your primary care doctor checks blood pressure and cholesterol, the risks behind coronary artery disease.

Learn More About Primary Care
Weight Loss and Bariatric Surgery

Losing excess weight lowers the blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar that drive coronary disease.

Learn More About Weight Loss and Bariatric Surgery
Conditions
Heart attack

A heart attack happens when blood flow to part of the heart muscle is suddenly blocked. It is an emergency: call 911....

Learn More About Heart attack
Heart failure

Heart failure means the heart pumps with less force than your body needs. It does not mean the heart has stopped. Baptist...

Learn More About Heart failure
Treatments
Exercise stress test

A test that records your heart's rhythm and blood pressure while you walk on a treadmill, to show how your heart responds...

Learn More About Exercise stress test
Nuclear stress test

A heart imaging test that compares pictures of your heart at rest and under stress, using a small amount of radioactive...

Learn More About Nuclear stress test
Echocardiogram

A painless ultrasound of your heart. Sound waves make a moving picture that shows the size and thickness of your heart, how...

Learn More About Echocardiogram
Coronary calcium scoring

A quick heart scan that measures the calcium in your heart's arteries, an early sign of plaque build-up. It needs no dye, no...

Learn More About Coronary calcium scoring
Cardiac catheterization

Cardiac catheterization uses a thin, flexible tube guided through a blood vessel to your heart. It shows your doctor how...

Learn More About Cardiac catheterization
Coronary angioplasty and stents

Coronary angioplasty opens a narrowed or blocked heart artery with a tiny balloon, and a stent, a small mesh tube, keeps it...

Learn More About Coronary angioplasty and stents

References

  1. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Coronary Heart Disease.
    https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/coronary-heart-disease
  2. American Heart Association. Coronary Artery Disease.
    https://www.heart.org/en/health-topics/consumer-healthcare/what-is-cardiovascular-disease/coronary-artery-disease
  3. MedlinePlus. Coronary Artery Disease.
    https://medlineplus.gov/coronaryarterydisease.html
  4. Virani SS, et al. 2023 AHA/ACC Multisociety Guideline for the Management of Patients With Chronic Coronary Disease. Circulation.
    https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CIR.0000000000001168

Talk With a Cardiologist

Baptist Health cardiologists see patients at practices across the Birmingham area and in Anniston.

Find a Cardiologist

Heart Failure

Heart failure means the heart pumps with less force than your body needs. It does not mean the heart has stopped. Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, manages it through its cardiologists across Alabama, with testing, medicine and follow-up close to home.

Medically Reviewed Content
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Research and Evidence for This Page

This page's buttons: Find a Cardiologist. Read by someone with a diagnosis or symptoms: the real decision is which cardiologist, so the one door is the doctor finder; the practices the page names lead its Services tab.
RULINGEvery page's buttons are chosen for the reader who lands on it

A page shows zero, one or two buttons, each reasoned from the moment its reader is in. Leads go where a real decision exists (planning a birth, a diagnosis in pregnancy, a failed screen, a follow-up specialist, a pediatrician for a healthy newborn). A page read by a parent whose baby is in a NICU now offers the page's own help and the support every NICU family gets, never a sales button. No button anywhere asks anyone to choose a NICU.

  • Nobody plans a NICU stay: a baby comes to one from the delivery room or by transfer between hospitals, so a button to find one serves no reader.
  • A baby in a NICU already has its doctors at the bedside, and most families name a pediatrician before discharge, so a pediatrician button on an apnea page sells to nobody.
  • Serving the business and serving the parent are meant to agree: where no honest lead exists, help that keeps the family with Orlando Health is the business value.
  • Two slots are a ceiling, never a quota: a filler button beside a page's one real action comes off.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDRelated services are single service lines, in the designer's Services tab

Related services render as the Services tab of the designer's tabs module, as he drew them: six cards on a line page, each one service line on the ruled list, never two specialties under one name, each with one sentence on how that line joins a newborn's care.

  • The designer's service line and location frames show Services, Conditions and Treatments as three tabs, the Services tab holding six single-line cards with a sentence each.
  • The ruled list of children's service lines carries pediatric hematology and pediatric oncology, pulmonology and sleep medicine, neurology and neurosurgery as separate lines; a combined name matches no page that will exist.
  • A gate refuses any service card whose name is not a ruled line.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDThe page is set in Lufga, the typeface Orlando Health uses, at its three weights

Every page uses Lufga, loaded from orlandohealth.com, at 400, 500 and 700 only. Headings 700, the hero paragraph 500, body and buttons 400.

  • Read on orlandohealth.com, 2026-10-20: the site loads Lufga in three files, Regular 400, Medium 500 and Bold 700, and sets its headings at 700.
  • The designer's frames are set in the same face; an earlier build used a stand-in, which is why its weights read differently beside his frames.

Sources

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDButtons are the designer's slim pills, with an icon in the hero

Pills are about 2.4 times their label tall, regular weight, with no border on solid pills; the two hero pills are equal width across the paragraph, each led by an ink icon chosen from its label. The facility hero's pills carry no icon.

  • Measured across the designer's frames: every pill is 2.3 to 2.5 times its label tall, and the hero pills carry a calendar or a phone before the label.
  • A gate checks every rendered pill against these proportions.

Decided 2026-10-20

RESEARCHBreadcrumbs show a page's place in the site; a back link and the line card give the way back

A library page's breadcrumbs follow its address (Home, Health Library, Conditions, the page), because one condition page serves every line that treats it. The way back to the line comes from two other places: the first card in the page's Services tab is the line itself, always; and a visitor who arrived from a line, unit, team or program page also sees a Back link at the right of the crumb bar, naming that page.

  • Breadcrumbs should show a page's place in the site's hierarchy, never the visitor's history; history trails grow long and repetitive and do nothing for a visitor who arrives from search.
  • A page with more than one parent shows one canonical trail for everyone, which keeps the page's signal to search engines consistent.
  • A separate link back to where the visitor came from is a common pattern (a store's Back to Results) and leaves the canonical trail untouched.
  • Tested in the demo: a parent reading condition pages could not find the way back to the Neonatal Care page.

Sources

Decided 2026-10-21

The shoes that stop fitting by evening. The second pillow you started using to breathe easier at night. The flight of stairs that used to be nothing and now needs a pause halfway up.

Heart failure is one of the most frightening names in medicine, and the first thing to say is what it does not mean: your heart has not stopped and it is not about to. It means the heart has lost some of its push, so blood and fluid back up, like water that drains slowly and rises behind the sink. That backing up causes most of what you feel, the breathlessness when fluid gathers in the lungs and the swelling when it gathers in the legs. Many people live with heart failure for years, with a plan.

Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, cares for heart failure through its cardiologists across its Alabama practices and hospitals. There is no separate clinic to find: you see a cardiologist who comes to know you, tracks how you are doing and adjusts your plan as your heart responds. This page covers what heart failure is, how it is found and managed, and the signs that need fast attention.

What Is Heart Failure?

Heart failure is a long-term condition in which the heart cannot move enough blood to meet what the body needs. It happens in one of two ways, and sometimes both. In systolic heart failure (reduced ejection fraction), the heart muscle weakens and cannot squeeze forcefully enough. In diastolic heart failure (preserved ejection fraction), the muscle stiffens and cannot relax and fill properly between beats. Either way, less blood moves forward and more backs up behind the heart.

The body tries to compensate. The heart beats faster or enlarges, and the kidneys hold on to fluid. These adjustments help for a while and can add strain over time, which is why heart failure needs ongoing care.

Ejection fraction is a measurement of how much blood the heart pumps out with each beat, shown as a percentage on an echocardiogram. Your cardiologist uses it, with several other measures, to choose your treatment.

Symptoms of Heart Failure

Symptoms often build slowly and are easy to blame on aging or being tired.

  • Shortness of breath with activity or when lying flat, easing when you prop yourself up.
  • Fatigue and weakness, and less stamina for things you used to do easily.
  • Swelling in the legs, ankles, feet or belly.
  • Rapid weight gain over a few days, caused by fluid.
  • A cough or wheeze that persists, sometimes with white or pink-tinged mucus.
  • A fast or irregular heartbeat.
  • Poor appetite or nausea, and trouble concentrating.

Sudden weight gain is the sign people miss most often, and the easiest one to catch at home.

When to Get Help Now

Call 911 or go to the emergency department for:

  • Severe or sudden shortness of breath, or trouble breathing at rest or when lying down.
  • Coughing up pink or foamy mucus.
  • Chest pain or pressure.
  • Fainting.

Call 911 rather than driving.

Call your care team the same day for:

  • Weight gain of about 3 pounds in a day or 5 pounds in a week.
  • New or worsening swelling in your legs or belly.
  • A cough that keeps going.

Caught early, these are often handled with a change in medicine and no hospital stay.

When you cannot tell which list you are in, call and describe what is happening; if nobody can be reached and it looks like the first list, go.

Causes of Heart Failure

Heart failure is usually the result of something else that has been working on the heart over time. The most common causes are coronary artery disease and a previous heart attack, long-standing high blood pressure, heart valve disease, cardiomyopathy (a disease of the heart muscle itself), long-standing irregular rhythms such as atrial fibrillation, and heart conditions present from birth. Often more than one is at work, and sometimes no clear cause is found.

Risk Factors for Heart Failure

These raise the chance of heart failure, and many can be treated or changed:

  • High blood pressure, coronary artery disease or a past heart attack.
  • Diabetes, obesity, sleep apnea and thyroid disorders.
  • Heavy or long-term alcohol use, certain medicines and past chemotherapy.
  • A family history of heart muscle disease.
  • Older age.

Prevention of Heart Failure

Treating the conditions that lead to heart failure is the strongest protection: keeping blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar in range, not using tobacco, limiting alcohol, staying active and reaching a healthy weight. If you already have coronary disease, a valve problem or atrial fibrillation, keeping up with that care protects the heart muscle too.

Diagnosis of Heart Failure

The first visit is a conversation about what you have noticed and what your heart has been through. The central test is an echocardiogram, an ultrasound that shows the structure of your heart and measures how well it pumps. Alongside it your team may use:

  • An electrocardiogram for rhythm and signs of past heart damage.
  • Blood tests, including BNP or NT-proBNP, which rise when the heart is under strain, plus kidney, thyroid and electrolyte checks.
  • A chest X-ray to see heart size and fluid in the lungs.
  • A stress test to see how your heart and breathing respond to effort. See the exercise stress test.
  • A cardiac catheterization when your team needs to look at the arteries feeding the heart.

No one test makes the diagnosis alone. Your team reads them together with your history.

Treatment Options for Heart Failure

Treatment is built around the type of heart failure you have, its cause and how far it has progressed, and for most people it is ongoing care with a general cardiologist.

Medicines and Daily Habits

Several drug families work together: easing the heart's workload, clearing extra fluid, steadying rhythm and protecting the heart muscle. Daily habits help too: weighing yourself every morning, watching salt and fluid as your team directs, and staying active at a level your team sets.

Treating What Drives It

Care for coronary disease, a valve problem or a rhythm problem often improves how the heart works.

Devices and Rehabilitation

A pacemaker or an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator helps when rhythm or the risk of a dangerous rhythm calls for one. Cardiac rehabilitation offers supervised exercise and education.

Advanced Care

For the smaller number of people who need options such as a heart pump or transplant evaluation, your cardiologist connects you with an advanced heart failure center.

After a hospital stay for heart failure, a prompt follow-up visit matters, because the risk of returning is highest in the first weeks. The goal is to see you within 7 days of discharge.

Your plan is your own, made with your care team.

Living With Heart Failure

Day to day, a few habits protect you most: taking every medicine as prescribed even on days you feel well, weighing yourself on the same scale at the same time each day, watching for swelling, and staying active the way your team has set out. Flu, COVID-19 and pneumonia vaccines protect a heart with less reserve. Ask your care team to help you list your own early warning signs.

If you are the family member who keeps track of the medicines and the scale each morning, this care is for you too. Chaplains and spiritual care are available at Baptist Health hospitals for any patient or family who would like them.

When to Talk to Your Care Team

Bring your daily weight log and medicine list to each visit. Tell your team the same day when your weight or swelling rises or your breathing changes, and call 911 for sudden or severe breathing trouble. Tell them when a medicine causes side effects, and before you stop or change any medicine, including over-the-counter pain relievers, which can make heart failure worse.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does heart failure mean my heart is going to stop?

No. Heart failure means the heart does not pump as well as it should. The heart keeps beating. Many people live with heart failure for years, managing it with medicine, daily habits and regular visits.

Can heart failure improve?

Sometimes. When the cause can be treated, such as a rhythm problem, a valve problem or a thyroid condition, heart function can improve. For others, the goal is to feel better, stay out of the hospital and keep the condition from worsening. What is realistic depends on the cause and type, so ask your cardiologist.

Why does my care team ask me to weigh myself every day?

Fluid collects before you feel breathless. A gain of a few pounds over a few days is often the earliest sign. Reporting it that day lets your team adjust your medicine before you get sick.

What should I do if I get a new symptom between visits?

Call your cardiology team. They expect to hear from you between appointments. Call the same day for rising weight, new swelling or a cough that keeps going, and call 911 for severe breathing trouble or chest pain.

Is heart failure the same as a heart attack?

No. A heart attack is a sudden blockage of blood to part of the heart muscle. Heart failure is a long-term condition in which the heart cannot pump enough blood for the body's needs; a heart attack is one of its causes.

Who Treats It and Where

Heart failure is managed by general cardiologists. Baptist Health does not have a separate heart failure clinic or program. Each practice books through its own scheduling link.

Type a city or zip code
Use My Location
Type a doctor's first or last name
Female Male
View Doctors with Online Scheduling
[n] doctors foundMany doctors have multiple practice locations. View the doctor's profile for a complete list of their locationsSort By: A to Z
[Doctor Name 1], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
[Doctor Name 2], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
[Doctor Name 3], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
123›

Related Pages

Related Service Lines
Heart and Vascular Care

Cardiologists find the cause of heart failure and adjust medicines, devices and follow-up over time.

Learn More About Heart and Vascular Care
Nephrology

Heart failure and kidney disease often occur together; kidney doctors help balance fluid and medicines.

Learn More About Nephrology
Sleep Medicine

Sleep apnea is common with heart failure, and treating it can ease the strain on the heart.

Learn More About Sleep Medicine
Conditions
Coronary artery disease

Coronary artery disease means the arteries that feed your heart have narrowed over time. It is common, it is treated every...

Learn More About Coronary artery disease
Heart valve disease

Heart valve disease means one or more of the heart's four valves does not open or close as it should. Many people are...

Learn More About Heart valve disease
Atrial fibrillation

Atrial fibrillation, or AFib, is the most common heart rhythm problem: the upper chambers beat in a fast, irregular pattern....

Learn More About Atrial fibrillation
Heart attack

A heart attack happens when blood flow to part of the heart muscle is suddenly blocked. It is an emergency: call 911....

Learn More About Heart attack
Treatments
Echocardiogram

A painless ultrasound of your heart. Sound waves make a moving picture that shows the size and thickness of your heart, how...

Learn More About Echocardiogram
Exercise stress test

A test that records your heart's rhythm and blood pressure while you walk on a treadmill, to show how your heart responds...

Learn More About Exercise stress test
Cardiac catheterization

Cardiac catheterization uses a thin, flexible tube guided through a blood vessel to your heart. It shows your doctor how...

Learn More About Cardiac catheterization
Pacemaker implantation

A pacemaker is a small device placed under the skin near your collarbone. It senses a heartbeat that is too slow or pauses,...

Learn More About Pacemaker implantation
Implantable cardioverter-defibrillator placement

An implantable cardioverter-defibrillator, or ICD, is a small device placed under the skin. It watches your heart rhythm...

Learn More About Implantable cardioverter-defibrillator placement
Cardiac rehabilitation

A medically supervised program of exercise, education and support that helps you rebuild strength after a heart attack, a...

Learn More About Cardiac rehabilitation

References

  1. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Heart Failure.
    https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/heart-failure
  2. American Heart Association. Heart Failure.
    https://www.heart.org/en/health-topics/heart-failure
  3. MedlinePlus. Heart Failure.
    https://medlineplus.gov/heartfailure.html
  4. Heidenreich PA, et al. 2022 AHA/ACC/HFSA Guideline for the Management of Heart Failure. Circulation.
    https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CIR.0000000000001063

Talk With a Cardiologist

Baptist Health cardiologists see patients at practices across the Birmingham area and in Anniston.

Find a Cardiologist

Atrial Fibrillation

Atrial fibrillation, or AFib, is the most common heart rhythm problem: the upper chambers beat in a fast, irregular pattern. It is manageable, and Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, treats it with heart rhythm specialists, testing, procedures and follow-up across Alabama.

Medically Reviewed Content
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Research and Evidence for This Page

This page's buttons: Find a Cardiologist. Read by someone with a diagnosis or symptoms: the real decision is which cardiologist, so the one door is the doctor finder; the practices the page names lead its Services tab.
RULINGEvery page's buttons are chosen for the reader who lands on it

A page shows zero, one or two buttons, each reasoned from the moment its reader is in. Leads go where a real decision exists (planning a birth, a diagnosis in pregnancy, a failed screen, a follow-up specialist, a pediatrician for a healthy newborn). A page read by a parent whose baby is in a NICU now offers the page's own help and the support every NICU family gets, never a sales button. No button anywhere asks anyone to choose a NICU.

  • Nobody plans a NICU stay: a baby comes to one from the delivery room or by transfer between hospitals, so a button to find one serves no reader.
  • A baby in a NICU already has its doctors at the bedside, and most families name a pediatrician before discharge, so a pediatrician button on an apnea page sells to nobody.
  • Serving the business and serving the parent are meant to agree: where no honest lead exists, help that keeps the family with Orlando Health is the business value.
  • Two slots are a ceiling, never a quota: a filler button beside a page's one real action comes off.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDRelated services are single service lines, in the designer's Services tab

Related services render as the Services tab of the designer's tabs module, as he drew them: six cards on a line page, each one service line on the ruled list, never two specialties under one name, each with one sentence on how that line joins a newborn's care.

  • The designer's service line and location frames show Services, Conditions and Treatments as three tabs, the Services tab holding six single-line cards with a sentence each.
  • The ruled list of children's service lines carries pediatric hematology and pediatric oncology, pulmonology and sleep medicine, neurology and neurosurgery as separate lines; a combined name matches no page that will exist.
  • A gate refuses any service card whose name is not a ruled line.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDThe page is set in Lufga, the typeface Orlando Health uses, at its three weights

Every page uses Lufga, loaded from orlandohealth.com, at 400, 500 and 700 only. Headings 700, the hero paragraph 500, body and buttons 400.

  • Read on orlandohealth.com, 2026-10-20: the site loads Lufga in three files, Regular 400, Medium 500 and Bold 700, and sets its headings at 700.
  • The designer's frames are set in the same face; an earlier build used a stand-in, which is why its weights read differently beside his frames.

Sources

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDButtons are the designer's slim pills, with an icon in the hero

Pills are about 2.4 times their label tall, regular weight, with no border on solid pills; the two hero pills are equal width across the paragraph, each led by an ink icon chosen from its label. The facility hero's pills carry no icon.

  • Measured across the designer's frames: every pill is 2.3 to 2.5 times its label tall, and the hero pills carry a calendar or a phone before the label.
  • A gate checks every rendered pill against these proportions.

Decided 2026-10-20

RESEARCHBreadcrumbs show a page's place in the site; a back link and the line card give the way back

A library page's breadcrumbs follow its address (Home, Health Library, Conditions, the page), because one condition page serves every line that treats it. The way back to the line comes from two other places: the first card in the page's Services tab is the line itself, always; and a visitor who arrived from a line, unit, team or program page also sees a Back link at the right of the crumb bar, naming that page.

  • Breadcrumbs should show a page's place in the site's hierarchy, never the visitor's history; history trails grow long and repetitive and do nothing for a visitor who arrives from search.
  • A page with more than one parent shows one canonical trail for everyone, which keeps the page's signal to search engines consistent.
  • A separate link back to where the visitor came from is a common pattern (a store's Back to Results) and leaves the canonical trail untouched.
  • Tested in the demo: a parent reading condition pages could not find the way back to the Neonatal Care page.

Sources

Decided 2026-10-21

You noticed your heart fluttering, racing or skipping, or a routine exam found an irregular rhythm you never felt. Either way, a diagnosis of atrial fibrillation brings questions: what this means for daily life, whether it is dangerous, and what happens next.

AFib is a problem with the heart's electrical signals. The two upper chambers, the atria, receive disorganized signals and quiver instead of contracting in an even rhythm. It is common, and most people with AFib go on to live full, active lives once it is understood and managed. The part that deserves attention is stroke risk, because blood that does not move well through the atria can form clots. Both the rhythm and the stroke risk have well-established treatments.

Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, treats AFib across its Alabama practices and hospitals, with cardiologists and heart rhythm specialists, rhythm monitoring, cardioversion, catheter ablation and stroke-prevention options. Your cardiologist follows you over time and brings in a heart rhythm specialist when your plan calls for one.

What Is Atrial Fibrillation?

Your heart has an electrical system that tells the upper and lower chambers when to contract, one after the other. In AFib, the signals in the atria become chaotic. The atria quiver and the rhythm becomes irregular, often fast. That changes how efficiently blood moves into the lower chambers, the ventricles, and out to the body.

AFib comes in forms, and the form you have affects how it is monitored and treated.

  • Paroxysmal AFib comes and goes on its own, often lasting minutes to hours, sometimes a day or more.
  • Persistent AFib lasts longer than seven days and usually needs treatment to stop.
  • Long-standing persistent or permanent AFib has been present for a long time, often more than a year.

Some people feel AFib strongly. Others feel nothing and learn about it at a routine exam. How much you feel says little about how important the condition is, which is why an evaluation matters even when you feel fine.

Symptoms of Atrial Fibrillation

  • Palpitations: a fluttering, quivering or flopping sensation in the chest.
  • A heartbeat that feels fast or irregular.
  • Shortness of breath, especially with activity or lying flat.
  • Tiredness that does not improve with rest.
  • Dizziness, lightheadedness or weakness.
  • Chest discomfort, which is not always present.

Symptoms differ from person to person and from one episode to the next. Episodes can come during exercise, at rest or in sleep, and their frequency can change over time.

When to Get Help Now

Call 911 or go to the emergency department for:

  • Sudden severe chest pain or pressure.
  • Trouble breathing.
  • Fainting.
  • Any sign of a stroke. Remember BE FAST: loss of Balance, Eye or vision changes, Face drooping, Arm weakness, Speech trouble, and Time to call 911.
  • Black, tarry or bloody stools, vomiting or coughing up blood, or bleeding that will not stop, if you take a blood thinner.

Call rather than driving; care begins when paramedics arrive.

Call your care team the same day for:

  • Episodes that come more often, last longer or feel stronger than before.
  • A racing heartbeat that does not settle with rest, without chest pain, trouble breathing or faintness.
  • New swelling in your legs, or shortness of breath that is getting worse.
  • Bruising or minor bleeding that worries you, or a question about your blood thinner.

When you cannot tell which list you are in, call and describe what is happening; if nobody can be reached and it looks like the first list, go.

Causes of Atrial Fibrillation

AFib starts when the tissue of the atria changes so that its electrical signals no longer travel in an orderly way. Most often, that change comes from another condition that strains or stretches the heart:

Risk Factors for Atrial Fibrillation

AFib can develop at any adult age, and risk rises after 60. Having risk factors does not mean you will develop AFib, and some people with AFib have none.

  • Obesity, diabetes and chronic kidney disease.
  • Heavy or regular alcohol use.
  • A family history of AFib or other rhythm problems.
  • Very long, intense endurance exercise in some people.

Prevention of Atrial Fibrillation

Not every case can be prevented, and some of the risk factors, such as age and family history, cannot be changed. The rest often can. Keeping blood pressure under control, limiting alcohol, staying active and reaching a healthy weight all lower the chance of developing AFib and of episodes coming back once you have it, and treating sleep apnea may help as well.

Diagnosis of Atrial Fibrillation

Evaluation starts with your symptoms, how long they last, what brings them on or relieves them, and your health history. Tests that find and track the rhythm:

  • Electrocardiogram (EKG). A painless recording of your heart's electrical activity. It shows AFib if it is happening during the test.
  • Holter monitor. A portable recorder worn for 24 to 48 hours or longer, useful when AFib does not happen every day.
  • Event recorder. Worn for weeks or months, and you press a button when you feel symptoms. For episodes that come rarely, an implantable cardiac loop recorder can watch for longer.
  • Echocardiogram. An ultrasound that shows valve problems or enlarged chambers that may contribute to AFib.
  • Blood tests for thyroid, kidney and electrolyte levels.

Treatment Options for Atrial Fibrillation

There is no single right answer. Your plan depends on your type of AFib, your symptoms, your stroke risk and your overall health, and you make the decisions together with your cardiologist or heart rhythm specialist.

Medicines

Medicines that slow the rate or control the rhythm are a common starting point, especially when symptoms are manageable, and many people also take a blood thinner to lower stroke risk. For many people, medicine and monitoring work well.

Procedures

Cardioversion is a brief, controlled electrical shock, given while you are sedated, that resets the heart to a normal rhythm. Catheter ablation targets the small areas of heart tissue sending the irregular signals, to restore a regular rhythm; it is considered when medicine is not enough or when you and your specialist decide it is the right next step. Baptist Health's heart rhythm specialists offer pulsed field ablation among their methods. Left atrial appendage closure, with the Watchman device, is a one-time implant that closes off the part of the heart where AFib-related clots tend to form, for people who need an alternative to long-term blood thinners. Some people whose heart rate drops too low need a pacemaker.

Your plan is your own, made with your care team. You will not be rushed, and a second opinion is welcome.

Living With Atrial Fibrillation

Taking your medicines on schedule, especially a blood thinner if you have one, is the habit that matters most. Keep your follow-up visits, tell your team about new symptoms or a change in how often episodes come, and ask before starting new medicines or supplements, since some interact with blood thinners. Blood pressure, weight, sleep apnea and alcohol all affect AFib, so working on them often helps. For people with an implanted device, Baptist Health's heart lab at Cardiovascular Associates' main location can follow many devices remotely, which means fewer trips.

When to Talk to Your Care Team

Bring your questions to every visit, and keep a note of your episodes: when they started, how long they lasted and what you were doing. Tell your team if your symptoms change, if a medicine gives you side effects, or before any surgery or dental work, since your blood thinner plan may need adjusting. A change in how AFib feels is worth a call, even between visits.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between AFib and a normal fast heartbeat?

A fast heartbeat can come from exercise, stress, fever, dehydration or caffeine, and it keeps an even beat. AFib is irregular as well as often fast, because the atria send disorganized signals. An EKG is the standard way to tell AFib from other rhythm problems.

Can AFib go away on its own?

Paroxysmal AFib stops on its own, and an episode may end before you see a doctor. The underlying condition can still be there, so it should be evaluated even after symptoms fade.

Is AFib dangerous?

For most people AFib is not an immediate emergency, and many live full, active lives with care. Its main risk over time is stroke, since clots can form in the atria, along with a tired heart if the rate stays fast. Evaluation and follow-up lower those risks.

Does everyone with AFib need a blood thinner?

Not everyone. The decision rests on your individual stroke risk, which your doctor assesses. Do not start or stop a blood thinner without talking to your care team.

Can lifestyle changes help?

Often. Blood pressure, weight, sleep, alcohol and activity are all linked to AFib. Ask your care team which changes matter most for you.

Who Treats It and Where

Each practice books through its own scheduling link.

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[n] doctors foundMany doctors have multiple practice locations. View the doctor's profile for a complete list of their locationsSort By: A to Z
[Doctor Name 1], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
[Doctor Name 2], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
[Doctor Name 3], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
123›

Related Pages

Related Service Lines
Heart and Vascular Care

Heart rhythm specialists treat AFib with medicine, cardioversion or ablation, and plan stroke prevention.

Learn More About Heart and Vascular Care
Neuroscience

AFib raises the risk of stroke; neurologists care for stroke and help find AFib as its cause.

Learn More About Neuroscience
Sleep Medicine

Treating sleep apnea can help a regular heart rhythm last after AFib treatment.

Learn More About Sleep Medicine
Endocrinology and Diabetes

An overactive thyroid can trigger AFib, and thyroid treatment is part of finding the cause.

Learn More About Endocrinology and Diabetes
Conditions
Coronary artery disease

Coronary artery disease means the arteries that feed your heart have narrowed over time. It is common, it is treated every...

Learn More About Coronary artery disease
Heart failure

Heart failure means the heart pumps with less force than your body needs. It does not mean the heart has stopped. Baptist...

Learn More About Heart failure
Heart valve disease

Heart valve disease means one or more of the heart's four valves does not open or close as it should. Many people are...

Learn More About Heart valve disease
Heart arrhythmia (tachycardia and bradycardia)

A heart arrhythmia is a problem with the heart's electrical signals, so the heart beats too fast, too slow or unevenly. Many...

Learn More About Heart arrhythmia (tachycardia and bradycardia)
Treatments
Holter monitor

A small, wearable heart recorder that tracks your heart's rhythm for a day or two while you go about your normal day. It...

Learn More About Holter monitor
Implantable cardiac loop recorder placement

An implantable loop recorder is a very small device placed just under the skin of your chest. It records your heart rhythm...

Learn More About Implantable cardiac loop recorder placement
Echocardiogram

A painless ultrasound of your heart. Sound waves make a moving picture that shows the size and thickness of your heart, how...

Learn More About Echocardiogram
Cardioversion

Cardioversion resets a heart that is beating too fast or out of rhythm, most often in atrial fibrillation. You are given...

Learn More About Cardioversion
Cardiac catheter ablation

Cardiac catheter ablation treats an abnormal heart rhythm from inside the heart. Thin tubes guided through a vein find the...

Learn More About Cardiac catheter ablation
Left atrial appendage closure

Left atrial appendage closure seals a small pouch in the heart where clots form in atrial fibrillation, to lower stroke...

Learn More About Left atrial appendage closure

References

  1. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Atrial Fibrillation.
    https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/atrial-fibrillation
  2. American Heart Association. Atrial Fibrillation.
    https://www.heart.org/en/health-topics/atrial-fibrillation
  3. MedlinePlus. Atrial Fibrillation.
    https://medlineplus.gov/atrialfibrillation.html
  4. Joglar JA, et al. 2023 ACC/AHA/ACCP/HRS Guideline for the Diagnosis and Management of Atrial Fibrillation. Circulation.
    https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CIR.0000000000001193

Talk With a Cardiologist

Baptist Health cardiologists see patients at practices across the Birmingham area and in Anniston.

Find a Cardiologist

Heart Attack

A heart attack happens when blood flow to part of the heart muscle is suddenly blocked. It is an emergency: call 911. Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, provides emergency heart care, then follow-up and rehabilitation close to home across Alabama.

Medically Reviewed Content
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Research and Evidence for This Page

This page's buttons: When to Get Help Now. A heart attack is a 911 call. The page leads with its own help and sells nothing; the closing band offers the care after.
RULINGEvery page's buttons are chosen for the reader who lands on it

A page shows zero, one or two buttons, each reasoned from the moment its reader is in. Leads go where a real decision exists (planning a birth, a diagnosis in pregnancy, a failed screen, a follow-up specialist, a pediatrician for a healthy newborn). A page read by a parent whose baby is in a NICU now offers the page's own help and the support every NICU family gets, never a sales button. No button anywhere asks anyone to choose a NICU.

  • Nobody plans a NICU stay: a baby comes to one from the delivery room or by transfer between hospitals, so a button to find one serves no reader.
  • A baby in a NICU already has its doctors at the bedside, and most families name a pediatrician before discharge, so a pediatrician button on an apnea page sells to nobody.
  • Serving the business and serving the parent are meant to agree: where no honest lead exists, help that keeps the family with Orlando Health is the business value.
  • Two slots are a ceiling, never a quota: a filler button beside a page's one real action comes off.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDRelated services are single service lines, in the designer's Services tab

Related services render as the Services tab of the designer's tabs module, as he drew them: six cards on a line page, each one service line on the ruled list, never two specialties under one name, each with one sentence on how that line joins a newborn's care.

  • The designer's service line and location frames show Services, Conditions and Treatments as three tabs, the Services tab holding six single-line cards with a sentence each.
  • The ruled list of children's service lines carries pediatric hematology and pediatric oncology, pulmonology and sleep medicine, neurology and neurosurgery as separate lines; a combined name matches no page that will exist.
  • A gate refuses any service card whose name is not a ruled line.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDThe page is set in Lufga, the typeface Orlando Health uses, at its three weights

Every page uses Lufga, loaded from orlandohealth.com, at 400, 500 and 700 only. Headings 700, the hero paragraph 500, body and buttons 400.

  • Read on orlandohealth.com, 2026-10-20: the site loads Lufga in three files, Regular 400, Medium 500 and Bold 700, and sets its headings at 700.
  • The designer's frames are set in the same face; an earlier build used a stand-in, which is why its weights read differently beside his frames.

Sources

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDButtons are the designer's slim pills, with an icon in the hero

Pills are about 2.4 times their label tall, regular weight, with no border on solid pills; the two hero pills are equal width across the paragraph, each led by an ink icon chosen from its label. The facility hero's pills carry no icon.

  • Measured across the designer's frames: every pill is 2.3 to 2.5 times its label tall, and the hero pills carry a calendar or a phone before the label.
  • A gate checks every rendered pill against these proportions.

Decided 2026-10-20

RESEARCHBreadcrumbs show a page's place in the site; a back link and the line card give the way back

A library page's breadcrumbs follow its address (Home, Health Library, Conditions, the page), because one condition page serves every line that treats it. The way back to the line comes from two other places: the first card in the page's Services tab is the line itself, always; and a visitor who arrived from a line, unit, team or program page also sees a Back link at the right of the crumb bar, naming that page.

  • Breadcrumbs should show a page's place in the site's hierarchy, never the visitor's history; history trails grow long and repetitive and do nothing for a visitor who arrives from search.
  • A page with more than one parent shows one canonical trail for everyone, which keeps the page's signal to search engines consistent.
  • A separate link back to where the visitor came from is a common pattern (a store's Back to Results) and leaves the canonical trail untouched.
  • Tested in the demo: a parent reading condition pages could not find the way back to the Neonatal Care page.

Sources

Decided 2026-10-21

If you think you or someone near you is having a heart attack right now, stop reading and call 911.

A heart attack, medically a myocardial infarction, happens when a blockage in a coronary artery cuts off blood to part of the heart muscle. The longer the blockage lasts, the more muscle is damaged, which is why speed matters and why paramedics start treatment on the way to the hospital. Most heart attacks begin when plaque inside a coronary artery breaks open and a blood clot forms on it.

If you are reading this after a heart attack, your own or a family member's, the rest of the page is for you. A heart attack is a serious event and it is also the start of a recovery you and your cardiologist build together. Many people return to full, active lives. Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, treats heart attacks in its hospitals across Alabama, and its cardiologists follow you through recovery and prevention afterward.

What Is a Heart Attack?

A heart attack is a sudden blockage of blood flow to part of the heart muscle. Without blood, that muscle is starved of oxygen and begins to be injured. Opening the artery quickly limits the damage, and that is the first goal of the emergency team.

There are two main types, and your team will tell you which one you had.

  • STEMI (ST-elevation myocardial infarction) is caused by a fully blocked artery and needs the artery opened right away.
  • NSTEMI (non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction) is caused by a partly blocked artery. It is still treated urgently, often with a procedure and medicine.

A heart attack is a sudden event. It differs from coronary artery disease, the long-term narrowing of the arteries that usually causes it, and from angina, temporary chest discomfort when the heart is short of blood.

Symptoms of a Heart Attack

Heart attack symptoms vary. Some are sudden and severe, others mild and building over minutes to hours.

  • Chest pain, pressure, squeezing or tightness, often described as a heavy weight on the chest
  • Discomfort that spreads to the arm, shoulder, neck, jaw or upper back
  • Shortness of breath, with or without chest discomfort
  • A cold sweat, nausea or vomiting
  • Lightheadedness or dizziness
  • Unusual tiredness, which in women can begin days before other signs
  • A feeling that something is seriously wrong, even when symptoms seem mild

Women, older adults and people with diabetes are more likely to have shortness of breath, jaw or back pain, nausea or tiredness without classic chest pressure. Do not dismiss new or unusual symptoms as indigestion, anxiety or a pulled muscle.

When to Get Help Now

Call 911 or go to the emergency department for:

  • Any of the symptoms above, if you think you or someone with you may be having a heart attack, even when they seem mild or come and go.
  • Bleeding from a catheter site in your wrist or groin that does not stop with firm pressure.
  • A lump at the catheter site that is growing quickly, or a hand, arm, foot or leg below the site that turns cold, pale, numb or painful.

Do not wait to see whether the pain passes. Do not drive yourself or have someone drive you: the ambulance team can start treatment and alert the hospital on the way.

Stay on the line with the dispatcher. If the dispatcher tells you to chew an aspirin, and you are not allergic, do so. Every minute of delay raises the risk of permanent damage to the heart muscle.

Call your care team the same day for:

  • Side effects from a new heart medicine, or a question about stopping one.
  • New swelling in your ankles or legs, or feeling more tired or breathless than the week before.
  • Pain, swelling or bruising at the catheter site that is getting worse.

When you cannot tell which list you are in, call and describe what is happening; if nobody can be reached and it looks like the first list, go.

Causes of a Heart Attack

Most heart attacks happen when a patch of plaque in a coronary artery breaks open and a blood clot forms on it, blocking blood flow to part of the heart muscle. Less often, a coronary artery tightens in a spasm, or a tear in the artery wall, called spontaneous coronary artery dissection, blocks the flow.

Risk Factors for a Heart Attack

The same factors that lead to coronary artery disease raise the risk of a heart attack. Having them does not make a heart attack inevitable, and knowing yours is a reason to keep up with regular checkups.

  • A history of coronary artery disease or angina, or a previous heart attack
  • High blood pressure and high cholesterol, particularly high LDL
  • Smoking or past tobacco use
  • Diabetes
  • Excess weight and physical inactivity
  • Age, particularly men over 45 and women over 55
  • A family history of early heart disease
  • Chronic stress and heavy alcohol use

Prevention of a Heart Attack

The steps that protect against coronary artery disease also lower the risk of a heart attack: not using tobacco, keeping blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar in range, staying active, and eating mostly vegetables, fruit, whole grains and lean protein. After a first heart attack, taking your medicines every day and completing cardiac rehabilitation lower the chance of another.

Diagnosis of a Heart Attack

A heart attack is diagnosed in the emergency setting, where evaluation and treatment move together.

  • Electrocardiogram (EKG). A rapid recording of the heart's electrical activity. In a STEMI, specific changes confirm the diagnosis quickly.
  • Blood tests for troponin, a protein released when heart muscle is damaged, measured at intervals to confirm the injury and its extent.
  • Echocardiogram. An ultrasound that shows which areas of the heart are not working normally after the event.
  • Coronary angiography, done through cardiac catheterization, to see where the blockages are.

Treatment Options for a Heart Attack

Treatment has two stages: emergency care to open the artery, and recovery care that protects your heart.

Emergency Care

The goal is to restore blood flow fast, most often with angioplasty and a stent in a cardiac catheterization lab. A small balloon opens the artery and a tiny mesh tube holds it open. The Baptist Health hospitals that perform emergency stenting meet the national benchmark for door-to-balloon time, the measure of how quickly an artery is opened after a patient arrives. Medicine can also be used to dissolve a clot or protect the heart. Some people need bypass surgery afterward.

Recovery Care

At a close follow-up visit, your cardiologist reviews your medicines and test results, checks how you feel and adjusts your plan. Secondary prevention is the ongoing work of lowering the chance of a second event, through medicines, blood pressure and cholesterol control, and daily habits. Cardiac rehabilitation is a supervised program of monitored exercise, education and support, often recommended after a heart attack.

Recovery at Home

The first weeks home are tender. It is normal to feel watchful, to wonder with every twinge whether it is happening again, and to grieve the sense of safety you had before. That feeling eases, faster with a cardiologist who knows your history and a team you can reach.

Recovery times vary with how severe the heart attack was, how fast treatment began and your overall health. Some people are back to normal activities in a few weeks and others need longer. Bring your questions about activity, work and medicines to your follow-up visit.

When to Talk to Your Care Team

Keep every follow-up visit and bring your medicine list. Tell your team when a medicine causes side effects, before you stop any heart medicine, when you feel low or anxious for more than a couple of weeks, and before you return to driving, work or strenuous activity.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between a heart attack and cardiac arrest?

A heart attack is a circulation problem: a blockage cuts off blood to the heart muscle. Cardiac arrest is an electrical problem: the heart stops beating effectively. A heart attack can lead to cardiac arrest. Cardiac arrest needs immediate CPR and a defibrillator. If you are unsure what is happening, call 911 and the dispatcher will guide you.

How long does recovery take?

It varies. Some people return to normal activities within a few weeks, and others need more time and support. Your care team will tell you what to expect, including activity limits, follow-up visits and long-term monitoring.

Will I need to change my lifestyle?

Most likely some part of it. Changes in activity, food and tobacco use lower the risk of another event. Your team will help you pick the changes that fit your life.

What is cardiac rehabilitation?

A supervised program of exercise, heart-health education and support for emotional recovery. Cardiologists often recommend it after a heart attack, and it is associated with better recovery for many people. Ask your care team about it once the acute phase of your care is over.

Can I have another heart attack?

Having had one raises the chance of future events, which is why follow-up care, medicines and risk-factor control matter. Many people go on to live many years with good quality of life when their follow-up is consistent.

Who Treats It and Where

In an emergency, call 911. The ambulance takes you to a hospital emergency department, where the team begins care.

Type a city or zip code
Use My Location
Type a doctor's first or last name
Female Male
View Doctors with Online Scheduling
[n] doctors foundMany doctors have multiple practice locations. View the doctor's profile for a complete list of their locationsSort By: A to Z
[Doctor Name 1], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
[Doctor Name 2], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
[Doctor Name 3], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
123›

Related Pages

Related Service Lines
Emergency and Trauma Care

A heart attack is a 911 emergency: emergency teams start treatment and alert the cath lab on the way in.

Learn More About Emergency and Trauma Care
Heart and Vascular Care

After the emergency, cardiologists open the artery and lead recovery, medicines and cardiac rehab.

Learn More About Heart and Vascular Care
Primary Care

After a heart attack, primary care helps keep blood pressure, cholesterol and diabetes in range.

Learn More About Primary Care
Conditions
Coronary artery disease

Coronary artery disease means the arteries that feed your heart have narrowed over time. It is common, it is treated every...

Learn More About Coronary artery disease
Heart failure

Heart failure means the heart pumps with less force than your body needs. It does not mean the heart has stopped. Baptist...

Learn More About Heart failure
Treatments
Echocardiogram

A painless ultrasound of your heart. Sound waves make a moving picture that shows the size and thickness of your heart, how...

Learn More About Echocardiogram
Cardiac catheterization

Cardiac catheterization uses a thin, flexible tube guided through a blood vessel to your heart. It shows your doctor how...

Learn More About Cardiac catheterization
Coronary angioplasty and stents

Coronary angioplasty opens a narrowed or blocked heart artery with a tiny balloon, and a stent, a small mesh tube, keeps it...

Learn More About Coronary angioplasty and stents
Coronary artery bypass surgery

Coronary artery bypass surgery uses a healthy blood vessel from another part of your body to route blood around a blocked...

Learn More About Coronary artery bypass surgery
Cardiac rehabilitation

A medically supervised program of exercise, education and support that helps you rebuild strength after a heart attack, a...

Learn More About Cardiac rehabilitation

References

  1. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Heart Attack.
    https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/heart-attack
  2. American Heart Association. Heart Attack.
    https://www.heart.org/en/health-topics/heart-attack
  3. MedlinePlus. Heart Attack.
    https://medlineplus.gov/heartattack.html
  4. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About Heart Attack.
    https://www.cdc.gov/heart-disease/about/heart-attack.html

Care After a Heart Attack

After the hospital, our cardiologists follow your heart care, and cardiac rehabilitation helps you build back strength.

About Cardiac RehabFind a Cardiologist

Heart Valve Disease

Heart valve disease means one or more of the heart's four valves does not open or close as it should. Many people are monitored for years. Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, offers valve testing, a Valve Clinic, catheter-based valve procedures and valve surgery in Alabama.

Medically Reviewed Content
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Research and Evidence for This Page

This page's buttons: Find a Cardiologist. Read by someone with a diagnosis or symptoms: the real decision is which cardiologist, so the one door is the doctor finder; the practices the page names lead its Services tab.
RULINGEvery page's buttons are chosen for the reader who lands on it

A page shows zero, one or two buttons, each reasoned from the moment its reader is in. Leads go where a real decision exists (planning a birth, a diagnosis in pregnancy, a failed screen, a follow-up specialist, a pediatrician for a healthy newborn). A page read by a parent whose baby is in a NICU now offers the page's own help and the support every NICU family gets, never a sales button. No button anywhere asks anyone to choose a NICU.

  • Nobody plans a NICU stay: a baby comes to one from the delivery room or by transfer between hospitals, so a button to find one serves no reader.
  • A baby in a NICU already has its doctors at the bedside, and most families name a pediatrician before discharge, so a pediatrician button on an apnea page sells to nobody.
  • Serving the business and serving the parent are meant to agree: where no honest lead exists, help that keeps the family with Orlando Health is the business value.
  • Two slots are a ceiling, never a quota: a filler button beside a page's one real action comes off.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDRelated services are single service lines, in the designer's Services tab

Related services render as the Services tab of the designer's tabs module, as he drew them: six cards on a line page, each one service line on the ruled list, never two specialties under one name, each with one sentence on how that line joins a newborn's care.

  • The designer's service line and location frames show Services, Conditions and Treatments as three tabs, the Services tab holding six single-line cards with a sentence each.
  • The ruled list of children's service lines carries pediatric hematology and pediatric oncology, pulmonology and sleep medicine, neurology and neurosurgery as separate lines; a combined name matches no page that will exist.
  • A gate refuses any service card whose name is not a ruled line.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDThe page is set in Lufga, the typeface Orlando Health uses, at its three weights

Every page uses Lufga, loaded from orlandohealth.com, at 400, 500 and 700 only. Headings 700, the hero paragraph 500, body and buttons 400.

  • Read on orlandohealth.com, 2026-10-20: the site loads Lufga in three files, Regular 400, Medium 500 and Bold 700, and sets its headings at 700.
  • The designer's frames are set in the same face; an earlier build used a stand-in, which is why its weights read differently beside his frames.

Sources

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDButtons are the designer's slim pills, with an icon in the hero

Pills are about 2.4 times their label tall, regular weight, with no border on solid pills; the two hero pills are equal width across the paragraph, each led by an ink icon chosen from its label. The facility hero's pills carry no icon.

  • Measured across the designer's frames: every pill is 2.3 to 2.5 times its label tall, and the hero pills carry a calendar or a phone before the label.
  • A gate checks every rendered pill against these proportions.

Decided 2026-10-20

RESEARCHBreadcrumbs show a page's place in the site; a back link and the line card give the way back

A library page's breadcrumbs follow its address (Home, Health Library, Conditions, the page), because one condition page serves every line that treats it. The way back to the line comes from two other places: the first card in the page's Services tab is the line itself, always; and a visitor who arrived from a line, unit, team or program page also sees a Back link at the right of the crumb bar, naming that page.

  • Breadcrumbs should show a page's place in the site's hierarchy, never the visitor's history; history trails grow long and repetitive and do nothing for a visitor who arrives from search.
  • A page with more than one parent shows one canonical trail for everyone, which keeps the page's signal to search engines consistent.
  • A separate link back to where the visitor came from is a common pattern (a store's Back to Results) and leaves the canonical trail untouched.
  • Tested in the demo: a parent reading condition pages could not find the way back to the Neonatal Care page.

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Decided 2026-10-21

If your doctor heard a murmur, or told you a valve is narrowed or leaking, you may be picturing open-heart surgery. Valve disease is usually a condition you watch and plan for, and it rarely calls for action overnight. Many people live well for years with regular monitoring, and when a valve does need treatment, there is more than one way to do it.

Your heart has four valves, the aortic, mitral, tricuspid and pulmonary, that open and close with every beat to keep blood moving in the right direction. In valve disease, one or more of them stops working as it should, which makes the heart work harder over time.

Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, evaluates and treats valve disease across its Alabama practices and hospitals. Cardiologists follow your valves with imaging, a structural Heart Team reviews cases together, and the Baptist Health Valve Clinic is the referral point for more specialized valve care.

What Is Heart Valve Disease?

The valves act as one-way gates. In valve disease, a valve fails in one of two ways.

  • Stenosis. The valve becomes stiff or narrowed and does not open fully, so the heart pushes harder to move blood through it.
  • Regurgitation, also called a leaky valve. The valve does not close completely and some blood flows backward, so the heart does extra work to make up for it.

Some valve problems are present from birth. Others develop later with age, infection, inflammatory conditions or other heart disease. What happens next depends on which valve is affected, the type and degree of the problem, and how well the heart is coping. Valve disease often progresses slowly, which is why regular monitoring is a central part of care.

A heart murmur is an extra sound a doctor hears through a stethoscope. Many murmurs are harmless. Others point to a valve worth watching. A murmur is a reason to check, and it is often how valve disease is first found.

Symptoms of Heart Valve Disease

Valve disease often comes on slowly, and some people feel nothing at all. When there are signs:

  • Shortness of breath, especially with activity or lying flat
  • Tiredness, or doing less than you used to without getting winded
  • Chest pain or pressure
  • A fluttering, racing or skipped heartbeat
  • Dizziness or lightheadedness
  • Swelling in the feet, ankles or legs
  • A murmur your doctor hears at a routine exam

Symptoms can worsen gradually, so tell your care team about changes between visits.

When to Get Help Now

Most valve disease is not an emergency.

Call 911 or go to the emergency department for:

  • Sudden, severe shortness of breath.
  • Chest pain or pressure.
  • Fainting or near-fainting.
  • A sudden, dramatic change in how you feel, particularly with a known valve condition.

Call instead of driving yourself. Care begins when paramedics arrive.

Call your care team the same day for:

  • Shortness of breath or tiredness that is getting worse over days.
  • New swelling in your feet, ankles or legs.
  • A fever you cannot explain, if you have a valve problem or an artificial valve.

When you cannot tell which list you are in, call and describe what is happening; if nobody can be reached and it looks like the first list, go.

Causes of Heart Valve Disease

The most common cause is age: valves stiffen and collect calcium as the heart ages. Others are a valve problem present from birth, scarring after rheumatic fever, an infection of the heart lining or valves (endocarditis), and changes from other heart disease that stretch or damage the valve.

Risk Factors for Heart Valve Disease

Valve disease can affect people of any age. Factors linked to a higher chance:

  • Older age, since valves stiffen and calcify as the heart ages (the most common reason)
  • A past episode of rheumatic fever
  • Heart conditions present from birth
  • A past infection of the heart lining or valves (endocarditis)
  • Chest radiation therapy
  • Connective tissue disorders
  • Other heart conditions, such as coronary artery disease or heart failure

Many people with valve disease have none of these.

Diagnosis of Heart Valve Disease

Valve disease is often suspected when a doctor hears a murmur at a routine exam, or when imaging done for another reason shows it. A detailed evaluation follows.

  • Echocardiogram. The main test. This ultrasound shows how each valve opens and closes, whether it is narrowed or leaking, and how the heart is coping.
  • Doppler echocardiography. Measures blood flow across a valve and the degree of narrowing or leaking, usually as part of the echocardiogram.
  • Electrocardiogram (EKG). Can show rhythm problems or strain on the heart.
  • Chest X-ray. Can show heart enlargement or fluid in the lungs.
  • Cardiac CT or MRI. Used occasionally for more detail, particularly when planning treatment.

Treatment Options for Heart Valve Disease

The right path depends on which valve is affected, how it is behaving and whether you have symptoms. For many people, the answer for now is to watch it closely.

Monitoring and Medicines

For mild disease, regular check-ins and periodic imaging confirm that nothing is changing faster than expected. This is care, and many people stay here for years. Medicines can ease symptoms and manage related problems such as fluid buildup or an irregular rhythm. They do not repair a valve.

Catheter-Based Procedures

Some valves can be treated through a thin tube guided to the heart, without opening the chest. Baptist Health's structural Heart Team offers transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) for a narrowed aortic valve and transcatheter mitral valve repair (MitraClip) for a leaking mitral valve. TriClip, a transcatheter therapy for a leaking tricuspid valve, is also offered. TAVR is performed at Baptist Health Brookwood Hospital. Left atrial appendage closure lowers stroke risk in some people with atrial fibrillation. Other structural heart care includes ASD and PFO closure, and balloon valvuloplasty.

Valve Surgery

Some valves are best treated with surgery, where the valve is repaired or replaced directly. A cardiac surgeon performs aortic valve repair or replacement and mitral valve repair or replacement, with mechanical and tissue valve options your surgeon will discuss with you.

Will I need surgery? Often not, and rarely right away. Many valve conditions are watched for years without a procedure. Whether and when to treat depends on the valve, the type and degree of the problem, your symptoms and how your heart is coping. None of that is decided in one visit. When treatment is considered, the Heart Team reviews your case together and recommends the option that fits you. A second opinion is welcome.

Living With Heart Valve Disease

Plan on regular follow-up, usually with periodic echocardiograms and a check-in about symptoms. Tell your team early when you notice a change. Some people have few limits on activity, and others receive guidance on exercise, dental care or antibiotics before certain procedures. Your cardiologist will tell you what applies to your valve. Keep your dental checkups, because infection in the mouth can reach damaged valves.

When to Talk to Your Care Team

Keep your follow-up visits and echocardiograms on schedule, even when you feel well. Tell your team the same day when your breathing, energy or swelling changes, and tell them before any dental work or procedure if you have an artificial valve, and before you stop any heart medicine.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does a heart murmur always mean I have valve disease?

No. Some murmurs are innocent and have no structural cause. Others reflect a valve problem. Your doctor decides from how the murmur sounds and your overall health whether to order an echocardiogram.

Can valve disease get worse over time?

Many forms do progress gradually, at a pace that varies a great deal. Periodic echocardiograms and symptom check-ins catch changes early, so treatment can come at the right time.

Will I eventually need a procedure?

Not always. Some valve conditions are monitored for years or decades. You and your cardiologist keep talking about it over time, and nothing is decided at diagnosis.

Can valve disease affect younger people?

Yes. Some valve conditions are present from birth and are found in childhood or adulthood. Rheumatic fever can also damage valves in younger people. Share any family history of heart conditions with your care team.

Do I need to change anything in daily life?

It depends on your valve and how severe the problem is. Ask your cardiologist about activity, dental care and whether you need antibiotics before dental or other procedures.

Who Treats It and Where

Each practice books through its own scheduling link.

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Related Pages

Related Service Lines
Heart and Vascular Care

Cardiologists follow valve disease with echocardiograms and plan repair or replacement when it is needed.

Learn More About Heart and Vascular Care
Primary Care

A heart murmur heard at a routine checkup is often how valve disease is first found.

Learn More About Primary Care
Conditions
Coronary artery disease

Coronary artery disease means the arteries that feed your heart have narrowed over time. It is common, it is treated every...

Learn More About Coronary artery disease
Heart failure

Heart failure means the heart pumps with less force than your body needs. It does not mean the heart has stopped. Baptist...

Learn More About Heart failure
Treatments
Echocardiogram

A painless ultrasound of your heart. Sound waves make a moving picture that shows the size and thickness of your heart, how...

Learn More About Echocardiogram
Transcatheter aortic valve replacement

Transcatheter aortic valve replacement, or TAVR, gives you a new aortic valve through a thin tube placed in an artery,...

Learn More About Transcatheter aortic valve replacement
Transcatheter mitral valve repair

Transcatheter mitral valve repair fixes a leaking mitral valve with a small clip placed through a vein in the leg, without...

Learn More About Transcatheter mitral valve repair
Left atrial appendage closure

Left atrial appendage closure seals a small pouch in the heart where clots form in atrial fibrillation, to lower stroke...

Learn More About Left atrial appendage closure
Aortic valve repair or replacement

Aortic valve surgery replaces, or in some cases repairs, the valve that sends blood from your heart to the rest of your...

Learn More About Aortic valve repair or replacement
Mitral valve repair or replacement

Mitral valve surgery repairs a leaking or narrowed valve between the upper and lower left chambers of your heart, or...

Learn More About Mitral valve repair or replacement

References

  1. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Heart Valve Disease.
    https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/heart-valve-diseases
  2. American Heart Association. Heart Valve Problems and Disease.
    https://www.heart.org/en/health-topics/heart-valve-problems-and-disease
  3. MedlinePlus. Heart Valve Diseases.
    https://medlineplus.gov/heartvalvediseases.html
  4. Otto CM, et al. 2020 ACC/AHA Guideline for the Management of Patients With Valvular Heart Disease. Circulation.
    https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CIR.0000000000000923

Talk With a Cardiologist

Baptist Health cardiologists see patients at practices across the Birmingham area and in Anniston.

Find a Cardiologist

Peripheral Artery Disease

Peripheral artery disease means the arteries that bring blood to your legs have narrowed, so your legs get less blood than they need. It is common, it can be found with a painless test, and it responds to care. Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, treats it across Alabama.

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Research and Evidence for This Page

This page's buttons: Find a Cardiologist. Read by someone with an artery or vein diagnosis or a screening result: the practice that treats it when only one does, otherwise the doctor finder for the specialty (Kim, 2026-10-22: never one practice over another).
RULINGEvery page's buttons are chosen for the reader who lands on it

A page shows zero, one or two buttons, each reasoned from the moment its reader is in. Leads go where a real decision exists (planning a birth, a diagnosis in pregnancy, a failed screen, a follow-up specialist, a pediatrician for a healthy newborn). A page read by a parent whose baby is in a NICU now offers the page's own help and the support every NICU family gets, never a sales button. No button anywhere asks anyone to choose a NICU.

  • Nobody plans a NICU stay: a baby comes to one from the delivery room or by transfer between hospitals, so a button to find one serves no reader.
  • A baby in a NICU already has its doctors at the bedside, and most families name a pediatrician before discharge, so a pediatrician button on an apnea page sells to nobody.
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MEASUREDRelated services are single service lines, in the designer's Services tab

Related services render as the Services tab of the designer's tabs module, as he drew them: six cards on a line page, each one service line on the ruled list, never two specialties under one name, each with one sentence on how that line joins a newborn's care.

  • The designer's service line and location frames show Services, Conditions and Treatments as three tabs, the Services tab holding six single-line cards with a sentence each.
  • The ruled list of children's service lines carries pediatric hematology and pediatric oncology, pulmonology and sleep medicine, neurology and neurosurgery as separate lines; a combined name matches no page that will exist.
  • A gate refuses any service card whose name is not a ruled line.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDThe page is set in Lufga, the typeface Orlando Health uses, at its three weights

Every page uses Lufga, loaded from orlandohealth.com, at 400, 500 and 700 only. Headings 700, the hero paragraph 500, body and buttons 400.

  • Read on orlandohealth.com, 2026-10-20: the site loads Lufga in three files, Regular 400, Medium 500 and Bold 700, and sets its headings at 700.
  • The designer's frames are set in the same face; an earlier build used a stand-in, which is why its weights read differently beside his frames.

Sources

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDButtons are the designer's slim pills, with an icon in the hero

Pills are about 2.4 times their label tall, regular weight, with no border on solid pills; the two hero pills are equal width across the paragraph, each led by an ink icon chosen from its label. The facility hero's pills carry no icon.

  • Measured across the designer's frames: every pill is 2.3 to 2.5 times its label tall, and the hero pills carry a calendar or a phone before the label.
  • A gate checks every rendered pill against these proportions.

Decided 2026-10-20

RESEARCHBreadcrumbs show a page's place in the site; a back link and the line card give the way back

A library page's breadcrumbs follow its address (Home, Health Library, Conditions, the page), because one condition page serves every line that treats it. The way back to the line comes from two other places: the first card in the page's Services tab is the line itself, always; and a visitor who arrived from a line, unit, team or program page also sees a Back link at the right of the crumb bar, naming that page.

  • Breadcrumbs should show a page's place in the site's hierarchy, never the visitor's history; history trails grow long and repetitive and do nothing for a visitor who arrives from search.
  • A page with more than one parent shows one canonical trail for everyone, which keeps the page's signal to search engines consistent.
  • A separate link back to where the visitor came from is a common pattern (a store's Back to Results) and leaves the canonical trail untouched.
  • Tested in the demo: a parent reading condition pages could not find the way back to the Neonatal Care page.

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Decided 2026-10-21

Leg pain that shows up when you walk and fades when you stop is easy to blame on age. Often it is a sign that the arteries in your legs have narrowed. That is peripheral artery disease, usually called PAD, and finding it gives you and your care team a chance to protect your legs and the rest of your circulation.

PAD comes from the same slow buildup of plaque that can narrow the arteries of the heart. It is common, it is well understood, and most people manage it over time with their care team. Some people feel nothing at all, so PAD is sometimes found during a check for something else.

Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, evaluates and treats PAD across its Alabama practices. Testing and follow-up happen close to home, and Baptist Health's interventional cardiologists perform PAD procedures from inside the artery. This page covers the signs, the tests, the treatment options and where to find care.

What Is Peripheral Artery Disease?

Your arteries move blood from your heart to the rest of your body. In peripheral artery disease, plaque (a fatty buildup) narrows the arteries that supply your legs and feet, and sometimes your arms. Narrowed arteries let less blood through. Your muscles then receive less oxygen than they need, most noticeably when you are active.

The same process, called atherosclerosis, can affect the arteries of the heart and the arteries that supply the brain. Because of that link, finding PAD tells your care team something useful about your whole circulation. Many people with PAD are also checked for coronary artery disease and carotid artery disease.

Symptoms of Peripheral Artery Disease

PAD often starts slowly. Symptoms usually appear in the legs and feet:

  • Cramping, aching or tiredness in the calf, thigh or buttock when you walk, which eases when you rest. This is called claudication, and it is the most common sign.
  • Leg pain at rest, especially at night when you lie down
  • Numbness, weakness or a heavy feeling in the legs
  • A lower leg or foot that feels colder than the other side
  • Sores on the toes, feet or legs that heal slowly or stay open
  • Skin that looks pale, bluish or shiny, or slow hair growth on the legs
  • A weak pulse in the legs or feet

Some people have no symptoms. Leg pain that comes with walking deserves a check, even when it seems like a normal part of getting older.

When to Get Help Now

Call 911 or go to the emergency department for:

  • Sudden, severe pain, coldness or numbness in a leg that feels different from your usual symptoms
  • A leg that looks pale or bluish
  • Sudden loss of movement or feeling in a leg or foot
  • A foot or leg wound that is getting worse quickly, or new black or dead-looking skin
  • A foot or leg sore with fever, chills, or redness that is spreading

Treatment works best the sooner blood flow returns, so call right away.

Call your care team the same day for:

  • A sore on your toes, feet or legs that is not healing, or is red, warm or draining.
  • Leg pain when walking that comes on sooner or lasts longer than before.
  • New leg pain at rest or at night.

When you cannot tell which list you are in, call and describe what is happening; if nobody can be reached and it looks like the first list, go.

Causes of Peripheral Artery Disease

PAD develops when plaque builds up inside the artery walls over many years, the same process, atherosclerosis, that narrows the arteries of the heart.

Risk Factors for Peripheral Artery Disease

These factors raise the chance of PAD:

  • Smoking now or in the past, which is one of the strongest risk factors
  • Diabetes
  • High blood pressure
  • High cholesterol
  • Older age, especially 65 and over, or 50 and over when another risk factor is present
  • A history of heart disease, heart attack or stroke
  • Chronic kidney disease
  • Low physical activity
  • A family history of PAD or cardiovascular disease

Prevention of Peripheral Artery Disease

Several of these respond to daily choices and to medicine, which is why PAD care starts with them. Not using tobacco is the most important step, along with keeping blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar in range and walking or staying active most days.

Diagnosis of Peripheral Artery Disease

Your care team starts with your history and an exam, including a check of the pulses in your legs and feet and the condition of your skin. The tests that follow are painless in most cases:

  • Ankle-brachial index (ABI). This compares the blood pressure at your ankle with the blood pressure in your arm. A lower ratio at the ankle points to reduced blood flow.
  • Doppler ultrasound. Sound waves show blood moving through your arteries and highlight narrowed spots.
  • CT or MR angiography. These scans create detailed pictures of your arteries.
  • Vascular angiography. A catheter and contrast dye give a close view of the arteries when your team plans a procedure.

Treatment Options for Peripheral Artery Disease

Most people begin with the first approach below, and many never need the others. The right plan depends on your symptoms, where the narrowing is, and your overall health, and you decide it together with your specialist.

Everyday Care and Medicines

This forms the base of nearly every PAD plan: stopping tobacco, managing blood pressure, cholesterol and diabetes, taking medicines that lower the chance of clots and heart attack, and keeping active. Walking within your team's guidance helps many people. Repeat ABI and ultrasound checks follow your arteries over the years.

Procedures

Baptist Health's interventional cardiologists reach the narrowed artery through a small access point instead of open surgery. They can open the artery with a balloon and stent, or use atherectomy to shave away hardened plaque and restore blood flow. They can also place a stent in a narrowed kidney artery when that is needed. Read more on the peripheral artery angioplasty and stenting page.

A procedure to restore blood flow is considered when the narrowing is significant, when leg pain limits your life despite other steps, or when a wound needs better blood supply to heal. Most people with PAD manage well without one, especially early on. A second opinion is always welcome.

Your plan is your own, made with your care team.

Living With Peripheral Artery Disease

PAD becomes a long-term partnership with your care team. Take your medicines every day, including on days your legs feel fine. Walk as your team advises. Look at your feet daily for sores, color changes or cracks. If you smoke, your team can help you quit, which is the most helpful step for your arteries. Keep your follow-up visits so any change in blood flow is caught early.

A chaplain and spiritual care are available to any patient or family who would like them, alongside the medical plan.

When to Talk to Your Care Team

Tell your team how far you can walk before leg pain starts, and call when that distance shortens. Bring your medicine list to each visit, show your team any sore that is slow to heal, and ask before you stop any medicine.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is claudication?

Claudication is cramping, aching or tiredness in the legs that comes on with walking and eases with rest. It happens because working muscles are not receiving enough blood.

Is PAD related to heart disease?

Yes. PAD and coronary artery disease come from the same process, plaque buildup in the arteries. Having PAD raises the chance of narrowing in the heart and brain arteries too, so your care team may look at your whole circulation.

Will I lose my leg?

Most people with PAD never do. Serious outcomes become far less likely when PAD is found and cared for early. The higher risk belongs to advanced disease and to wounds that will not heal, which is why a check sooner is better than later.

Does walking help?

Regular walking improves leg symptoms and walking distance for many people with PAD. Ask your care team how far and how often to walk.

Are all leg symptoms PAD?

No. Leg pain, cramping and swelling can come from muscles, joints, nerves or veins. An exam and a simple test tell your care team which it is. Swollen or achy legs may point to a vein condition, such as varicose veins.

Who Treats It and Where

PAD is cared for by the heart and vascular team, so there is no separate department to find.

  • Baptist Health Cardiovascular Associates. Testing, including the ankle-brachial index and ultrasound, and ongoing PAD care are offered at its offices. Its interventional cardiologists Stephen Bakir, MD, J Bradley Cavender, MD and Jan Skowronski, MD treat PAD with procedures done from inside the artery. To book, use the practice's scheduling link at baptisthealthal.com/cva.
  • Heart South Cardiovascular Group. Its interventional cardiologists diagnose and treat PAD. Book through heartsouthpc.com.
Type a city or zip code
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[n] doctors foundMany doctors have multiple practice locations. View the doctor's profile for a complete list of their locationsSort By: A to Z
[Doctor Name 1], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
[Doctor Name 2], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
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123›

Related Pages

Related Service Lines
Heart and Vascular Care

Vascular specialists treat narrowed leg arteries with medicine, walking plans and procedures to restore flow.

Learn More About Heart and Vascular Care
Endocrinology and Diabetes

Diabetes raises the risk of PAD and foot wounds, and diabetes care helps protect the legs and feet.

Learn More About Endocrinology and Diabetes
Primary Care

Primary care can check the pulses in your legs and order a simple test when walking brings on leg pain.

Learn More About Primary Care
Conditions
Coronary artery disease

Coronary artery disease means the arteries that feed your heart have narrowed over time. It is common, it is treated every...

Learn More About Coronary artery disease
Carotid artery disease

Carotid artery disease means the arteries on each side of your neck, which supply your brain, have narrowed. It often causes...

Learn More About Carotid artery disease
Varicose veins

Varicose veins are enlarged, twisted veins near the skin, usually in the legs, caused by weakened vein valves. They can...

Learn More About Varicose veins
Aortic aneurysm

An aortic aneurysm is a weakened, bulging spot in the aorta, the body's largest blood vessel. Many cause no symptoms and are...

Learn More About Aortic aneurysm
Deep vein thrombosis

Deep vein thrombosis, or DVT, is a blood clot in a deep vein, most often in the leg. It is treatable, and a quick, painless...

Learn More About Deep vein thrombosis
Treatments
Doppler ultrasound

A Doppler ultrasound uses sound waves to show how blood moves through the veins and arteries in your arms, legs and neck. It...

Learn More About Doppler ultrasound
Vascular angiography

Vascular angiography is an X-ray test that shows the inside of your blood vessels. Your care team injects contrast dye,...

Learn More About Vascular angiography
Peripheral artery angioplasty and stenting

Angioplasty and stenting open a narrowed artery in the leg or elsewhere outside the heart, using a thin tube and a tiny...

Learn More About Peripheral artery angioplasty and stenting

References

  1. American Heart Association. Peripheral Artery Disease (PAD).
    https://www.heart.org/en/health-topics/peripheral-artery-disease
  2. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Peripheral Artery Disease.
    https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/peripheral-artery-disease
  3. MedlinePlus. Peripheral Arterial Disease.
    https://medlineplus.gov/peripheralarterialdisease.html
  4. Society for Vascular Surgery. Peripheral Artery Disease.
    https://vascular.org/
  5. Gerhard-Herman MD, et al. 2016 AHA/ACC Guideline on the Management of Patients With Lower Extremity Peripheral Artery Disease. Circulation.
    https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CIR.0000000000000471

Care for Your Arteries and Veins

Our practices diagnose and treat artery and vein conditions, from screening to procedures.

Find a Cardiologist

Heart Arrhythmia (Tachycardia and Bradycardia)

A heart arrhythmia is a problem with the heart's electrical signals, so the heart beats too fast, too slow or unevenly. Many are manageable. Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, offers rhythm testing, ablation and devices through heart rhythm specialists in Alabama.

Medically Reviewed Content
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Research and Evidence for This Page

This page's buttons: Find a Cardiologist. Read by someone with a diagnosis or symptoms: the real decision is which cardiologist, so the one door is the doctor finder; the practices the page names lead its Services tab.
RULINGEvery page's buttons are chosen for the reader who lands on it

A page shows zero, one or two buttons, each reasoned from the moment its reader is in. Leads go where a real decision exists (planning a birth, a diagnosis in pregnancy, a failed screen, a follow-up specialist, a pediatrician for a healthy newborn). A page read by a parent whose baby is in a NICU now offers the page's own help and the support every NICU family gets, never a sales button. No button anywhere asks anyone to choose a NICU.

  • Nobody plans a NICU stay: a baby comes to one from the delivery room or by transfer between hospitals, so a button to find one serves no reader.
  • A baby in a NICU already has its doctors at the bedside, and most families name a pediatrician before discharge, so a pediatrician button on an apnea page sells to nobody.
  • Serving the business and serving the parent are meant to agree: where no honest lead exists, help that keeps the family with Orlando Health is the business value.
  • Two slots are a ceiling, never a quota: a filler button beside a page's one real action comes off.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDRelated services are single service lines, in the designer's Services tab

Related services render as the Services tab of the designer's tabs module, as he drew them: six cards on a line page, each one service line on the ruled list, never two specialties under one name, each with one sentence on how that line joins a newborn's care.

  • The designer's service line and location frames show Services, Conditions and Treatments as three tabs, the Services tab holding six single-line cards with a sentence each.
  • The ruled list of children's service lines carries pediatric hematology and pediatric oncology, pulmonology and sleep medicine, neurology and neurosurgery as separate lines; a combined name matches no page that will exist.
  • A gate refuses any service card whose name is not a ruled line.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDThe page is set in Lufga, the typeface Orlando Health uses, at its three weights

Every page uses Lufga, loaded from orlandohealth.com, at 400, 500 and 700 only. Headings 700, the hero paragraph 500, body and buttons 400.

  • Read on orlandohealth.com, 2026-10-20: the site loads Lufga in three files, Regular 400, Medium 500 and Bold 700, and sets its headings at 700.
  • The designer's frames are set in the same face; an earlier build used a stand-in, which is why its weights read differently beside his frames.

Sources

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDButtons are the designer's slim pills, with an icon in the hero

Pills are about 2.4 times their label tall, regular weight, with no border on solid pills; the two hero pills are equal width across the paragraph, each led by an ink icon chosen from its label. The facility hero's pills carry no icon.

  • Measured across the designer's frames: every pill is 2.3 to 2.5 times its label tall, and the hero pills carry a calendar or a phone before the label.
  • A gate checks every rendered pill against these proportions.

Decided 2026-10-20

RESEARCHBreadcrumbs show a page's place in the site; a back link and the line card give the way back

A library page's breadcrumbs follow its address (Home, Health Library, Conditions, the page), because one condition page serves every line that treats it. The way back to the line comes from two other places: the first card in the page's Services tab is the line itself, always; and a visitor who arrived from a line, unit, team or program page also sees a Back link at the right of the crumb bar, naming that page.

  • Breadcrumbs should show a page's place in the site's hierarchy, never the visitor's history; history trails grow long and repetitive and do nothing for a visitor who arrives from search.
  • A page with more than one parent shows one canonical trail for everyone, which keeps the page's signal to search engines consistent.
  • A separate link back to where the visitor came from is a common pattern (a store's Back to Results) and leaves the canonical trail untouched.
  • Tested in the demo: a parent reading condition pages could not find the way back to the Neonatal Care page.

Sources

Decided 2026-10-21

If you have been told your heart beats too fast, too slow or out of rhythm, the first thing to know is that most heart rhythm problems are manageable. A rhythm problem, called an arrhythmia, means the electrical signals that set your heartbeat are firing at the wrong speed or in the wrong pattern. Heart doctors work with these every day, and many people with one go on to live full, active lives.

The name covers a family of conditions. A heartbeat that is too fast is called tachycardia and one that is too slow is bradycardia. Some arrhythmias are harmless, like an occasional skipped beat. Others need treatment. Telling them apart takes a look at your rhythm, so an evaluation is worthwhile even when you feel fine.

Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, evaluates and treats arrhythmias across its Alabama practices and hospitals, with cardiologists, heart rhythm specialists called electrophysiologists, rhythm monitoring, ablation, pacemakers and defibrillators. Atrial fibrillation, the most common irregular rhythm, has its own page: Atrial fibrillation.

What Is a Heart Arrhythmia?

Your heartbeat starts in the sinoatrial node in the upper right chamber, which sends an electrical impulse through the upper chambers (atria) and then the lower chambers (ventricles), so they contract in order. An arrhythmia happens when this system misfires. The main kinds:

  • Tachycardia, a heart that beats too fast. It includes supraventricular tachycardia (SVT), atrial flutter, and the faster rhythms that start in the ventricles, ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillation, which can be serious and need prompt care.
  • Bradycardia, a heart that beats too slow, often because the heart's natural pacemaker or its wiring is not signaling as it should.
  • Premature beats, extra beats that start in the atria or ventricles. They are very common and often harmless.
  • Atrial fibrillation, covered on its own page.

An arrhythmia is an electrical timing problem. It does not mean your heart is failing or about to stop.

Supraventricular Tachycardia (SVT)

SVT is a group of fast rhythms that start above the ventricles. Episodes begin and end suddenly, with a rapid, regular heartbeat, and sometimes shortness of breath, dizziness or chest tightness. SVT is rarely life-threatening, and it can be disruptive and frightening.

Atrial Flutter

Atrial flutter is a fast, usually regular rhythm in the upper chambers, caused by an electrical signal that circles in the atria. Like AFib, its close relative, flutter can raise the chance of a blood clot and stroke, so your doctor will talk with you about stroke prevention.

Symptoms of a Heart Arrhythmia

  • Palpitations: a fluttering, racing, pounding or skipping feeling in the chest
  • A heartbeat that feels unusually fast, slow or irregular
  • Shortness of breath, during or after an episode
  • Dizziness or lightheadedness
  • Fainting or near-fainting
  • Chest discomfort or pressure
  • Tiredness out of proportion to what you did

Some people feel nothing and learn of the rhythm on a monitor. Occasional palpitations are common and often harmless, from premature beats, caffeine, stress or tiredness.

When to Get Help Now

Most arrhythmias are not emergencies.

Call 911 or go to the emergency department for:

  • Fainting or near-fainting with a racing or pounding heartbeat.
  • Chest pain or pressure, or sudden trouble breathing, along with an irregular heartbeat.
  • A racing heartbeat that will not slow, with severe dizziness or confusion.
  • A slow heartbeat with fainting or near-fainting.
  • Two or more shocks from an ICD in a day, or a shock followed by chest pain, trouble breathing or faintness.
  • Any sign of a stroke. Remember BE FAST: loss of Balance, Eye or vision changes, Face drooping, Arm weakness, Speech trouble, and Time to call 911.

Call instead of driving; care begins when paramedics arrive.

Call your care team the same day for:

  • Palpitations that are new, more frequent or longer-lasting than before.
  • A heartbeat that feels slower than usual, with tiredness or mild lightheadedness.
  • A single shock from an ICD when you feel fine afterward, or side effects from a rhythm medicine.

When you cannot tell which list you are in, call and describe what is happening; if nobody can be reached and it looks like the first list, go.

Causes of a Heart Arrhythmia

An arrhythmia starts when the heart's electrical signal forms in the wrong place, travels a short circuit, or is slowed or blocked. Scar tissue from a heart attack, a stretched or thickened heart muscle, an aging natural pacemaker, an overactive thyroid or low potassium can all change how the signal moves.

Risk Factors for a Heart Arrhythmia

Arrhythmias occur in healthy hearts and in people with heart disease. Factors linked to a higher chance include:

  • Heart conditions: coronary artery disease, heart failure, a past heart attack (scar tissue can disrupt electrical pathways) and valve disease
  • High blood pressure and sleep apnea
  • An overactive thyroid
  • Low or high potassium, sodium or magnesium
  • Too much caffeine or alcohol, stimulants, and some cold and allergy medicines
  • Stress or serious illness
  • A family history of arrhythmia or sudden cardiac death
  • Age

Many people with an arrhythmia have none of these.

Diagnosis of a Heart Arrhythmia

Diagnosis means capturing the heart's electrical activity during an episode. Because arrhythmias come and go, that can take more than one test.

  • Electrocardiogram (EKG). The quickest test; it shows rhythms present during the test.
  • Holter monitor. A portable recorder worn for 24 to 48 hours.
  • Extended event recorder. Worn for weeks or months and triggered when you have symptoms, or automatically.
  • Implantable cardiac loop recorder. A small device under the skin that monitors for months to years, for rare episodes or unexplained fainting.
  • Electrophysiology study. Catheters guided into the heart to map its electrical system and find the source.
  • Echocardiogram and blood tests to look for structural causes and for thyroid and electrolyte problems.

Treatment Options for a Heart Arrhythmia

The right path depends on the type, your symptoms and your overall health, and you decide it with your specialist. Many arrhythmias, premature beats especially, need only monitoring.

Medicines and Cardioversion

Medicines control the rate or rhythm, with checks in the office and remote monitoring. Cardioversion is a brief controlled shock, under sedation, that resets a fast rhythm. For SVT, simple maneuvers that slow the heart are often the first step.

Catheter Ablation

Catheter ablation uses a catheter to reach the small areas of tissue sending faulty signals and treat them, restoring a regular rhythm. It is considered when medicine is not enough or when you and your specialist decide it is the next step. For SVT it can end the problem, and for typical atrial flutter it is highly effective for most people, with a blood thinner often part of the plan. See also Atrial fibrillation.

Pacemakers and Defibrillators

A pacemaker is a small implanted device that keeps the heart from beating too slowly. Leadless pacemakers, which need no wires, are available for the right patients. An implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) watches for a dangerous fast rhythm and corrects it. A subcutaneous option, placed under the skin without wires in the heart, is available for the right patients.

If the idea of a device in your chest worries you, that is a common feeling and a fair thing to tell your care team. A second opinion is welcome.

Living With a Heart Arrhythmia

Take your medicines as prescribed, keep follow-up visits and tell your team about new symptoms. Caffeine, alcohol and stimulants can trigger episodes, so ask what applies to you. For people with a pacemaker or ICD, the heart lab at the main Cardiovascular Associates location can follow many devices remotely, which means fewer trips.

When to Talk to Your Care Team

Keep a short log of episodes: when they start, how long they last and what you were doing. Bring it to each visit, and tell your team when episodes change, when a medicine causes side effects, or before you stop any rhythm medicine.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are all arrhythmias dangerous?

No. Premature beats, for example, are extremely common and often harmless. Some arrhythmias do affect how the heart works and need care. How significant one is depends on its type, how your heart handles it and your overall health.

Why do some heart rhythm problems cause fainting?

Fainting happens when a rhythm that is very fast or very slow briefly lowers blood flow to the brain. Many things besides the heart can cause fainting, so it needs a full evaluation.

How is an arrhythmia different from a normal fast heartbeat after exercise?

During exercise the heart speeds up to meet your body's needs and slows afterward. An arrhythmia is a fault in the electrical system itself, a rhythm that is too fast, too slow or irregular without a clear reason. An EKG can tell the difference.

Do I need a cardiologist for occasional palpitations?

Occasional palpitations are common and often harmless. See someone if they are new, frequent, long-lasting, or come with dizziness, shortness of breath or fainting, or if you have heart disease or high blood pressure. Your primary care doctor is a good first call.

Can I live a normal life with a pacemaker?

Most people do. Most return to work, exercise and travel once the site heals, and your care team tells you what to keep away from the device.

Who Treats It and Where

Each practice books through its own scheduling link.

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[n] doctors foundMany doctors have multiple practice locations. View the doctor's profile for a complete list of their locationsSort By: A to Z
[Doctor Name 1], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
[Doctor Name 2], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
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Related Pages

Related Service Lines
Heart and Vascular Care

Heart rhythm specialists find the rhythm with monitors and treat it with medicine, ablation or a device.

Learn More About Heart and Vascular Care
Sleep Medicine

Sleep apnea can trigger rhythm problems, and treating it is part of keeping the heartbeat steady.

Learn More About Sleep Medicine
Endocrinology and Diabetes

Thyroid problems can speed or slow the heart, so thyroid tests are often part of the workup.

Learn More About Endocrinology and Diabetes
Conditions
Atrial fibrillation

Atrial fibrillation, or AFib, is the most common heart rhythm problem: the upper chambers beat in a fast, irregular pattern....

Learn More About Atrial fibrillation
Coronary artery disease

Coronary artery disease means the arteries that feed your heart have narrowed over time. It is common, it is treated every...

Learn More About Coronary artery disease
Heart failure

Heart failure means the heart pumps with less force than your body needs. It does not mean the heart has stopped. Baptist...

Learn More About Heart failure
Heart valve disease

Heart valve disease means one or more of the heart's four valves does not open or close as it should. Many people are...

Learn More About Heart valve disease
Treatments
Holter monitor

A small, wearable heart recorder that tracks your heart's rhythm for a day or two while you go about your normal day. It...

Learn More About Holter monitor
Implantable cardiac loop recorder placement

An implantable loop recorder is a very small device placed just under the skin of your chest. It records your heart rhythm...

Learn More About Implantable cardiac loop recorder placement
Echocardiogram

A painless ultrasound of your heart. Sound waves make a moving picture that shows the size and thickness of your heart, how...

Learn More About Echocardiogram
Cardioversion

Cardioversion resets a heart that is beating too fast or out of rhythm, most often in atrial fibrillation. You are given...

Learn More About Cardioversion
Cardiac catheter ablation

Cardiac catheter ablation treats an abnormal heart rhythm from inside the heart. Thin tubes guided through a vein find the...

Learn More About Cardiac catheter ablation
Pacemaker implantation

A pacemaker is a small device placed under the skin near your collarbone. It senses a heartbeat that is too slow or pauses,...

Learn More About Pacemaker implantation

References

  1. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Arrhythmias.
    https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/arrhythmias
  2. American Heart Association. Arrhythmia.
    https://www.heart.org/en/health-topics/arrhythmia
  3. MedlinePlus. Arrhythmia.
    https://medlineplus.gov/arrhythmia.html
  4. Page RL, et al. 2015 ACC/AHA/HRS Guideline for the Management of Adult Patients With Supraventricular Tachycardia. Circulation.
    https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CIR.0000000000000311

Talk With a Cardiologist

Baptist Health cardiologists see patients at practices across the Birmingham area and in Anniston.

Find a Cardiologist

Aortic Aneurysm

An aortic aneurysm is a weakened, bulging spot in the aorta, the body's largest blood vessel. Many cause no symptoms and are found by scan, then watched over time. Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, offers screening, monitoring and repair across Alabama.

Medically Reviewed Content
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Research and Evidence for This Page

This page's buttons: Find a Cardiologist. Read by someone with an artery or vein diagnosis or a screening result: the practice that treats it when only one does, otherwise the doctor finder for the specialty (Kim, 2026-10-22: never one practice over another).
RULINGEvery page's buttons are chosen for the reader who lands on it

A page shows zero, one or two buttons, each reasoned from the moment its reader is in. Leads go where a real decision exists (planning a birth, a diagnosis in pregnancy, a failed screen, a follow-up specialist, a pediatrician for a healthy newborn). A page read by a parent whose baby is in a NICU now offers the page's own help and the support every NICU family gets, never a sales button. No button anywhere asks anyone to choose a NICU.

  • Nobody plans a NICU stay: a baby comes to one from the delivery room or by transfer between hospitals, so a button to find one serves no reader.
  • A baby in a NICU already has its doctors at the bedside, and most families name a pediatrician before discharge, so a pediatrician button on an apnea page sells to nobody.
  • Serving the business and serving the parent are meant to agree: where no honest lead exists, help that keeps the family with Orlando Health is the business value.
  • Two slots are a ceiling, never a quota: a filler button beside a page's one real action comes off.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDRelated services are single service lines, in the designer's Services tab

Related services render as the Services tab of the designer's tabs module, as he drew them: six cards on a line page, each one service line on the ruled list, never two specialties under one name, each with one sentence on how that line joins a newborn's care.

  • The designer's service line and location frames show Services, Conditions and Treatments as three tabs, the Services tab holding six single-line cards with a sentence each.
  • The ruled list of children's service lines carries pediatric hematology and pediatric oncology, pulmonology and sleep medicine, neurology and neurosurgery as separate lines; a combined name matches no page that will exist.
  • A gate refuses any service card whose name is not a ruled line.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDThe page is set in Lufga, the typeface Orlando Health uses, at its three weights

Every page uses Lufga, loaded from orlandohealth.com, at 400, 500 and 700 only. Headings 700, the hero paragraph 500, body and buttons 400.

  • Read on orlandohealth.com, 2026-10-20: the site loads Lufga in three files, Regular 400, Medium 500 and Bold 700, and sets its headings at 700.
  • The designer's frames are set in the same face; an earlier build used a stand-in, which is why its weights read differently beside his frames.

Sources

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDButtons are the designer's slim pills, with an icon in the hero

Pills are about 2.4 times their label tall, regular weight, with no border on solid pills; the two hero pills are equal width across the paragraph, each led by an ink icon chosen from its label. The facility hero's pills carry no icon.

  • Measured across the designer's frames: every pill is 2.3 to 2.5 times its label tall, and the hero pills carry a calendar or a phone before the label.
  • A gate checks every rendered pill against these proportions.

Decided 2026-10-20

RESEARCHBreadcrumbs show a page's place in the site; a back link and the line card give the way back

A library page's breadcrumbs follow its address (Home, Health Library, Conditions, the page), because one condition page serves every line that treats it. The way back to the line comes from two other places: the first card in the page's Services tab is the line itself, always; and a visitor who arrived from a line, unit, team or program page also sees a Back link at the right of the crumb bar, naming that page.

  • Breadcrumbs should show a page's place in the site's hierarchy, never the visitor's history; history trails grow long and repetitive and do nothing for a visitor who arrives from search.
  • A page with more than one parent shows one canonical trail for everyone, which keeps the page's signal to search engines consistent.
  • A separate link back to where the visitor came from is a common pattern (a store's Back to Results) and leaves the canonical trail untouched.
  • Tested in the demo: a parent reading condition pages could not find the way back to the Neonatal Care page.

Sources

Decided 2026-10-21

If you were just told you have an aortic aneurysm, or a scan found one by surprise, you have time to learn what it means. For many people an aneurysm is found early, watched with regular scans, and managed for years. It is a weak spot in the wall of your aorta, the largest blood vessel in your body, and most of them grow slowly.

Many aneurysms cause no symptoms at all, so finding one is often the most important step. Size and growth guide nearly every decision, and your care team follows both closely.

Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, evaluates, monitors and repairs aortic aneurysms across its Alabama practices and hospitals, and offers screening to people at higher risk. Below you will find what an aneurysm is, how it is found and watched, and how repair works when it is needed, and which Baptist Health practices and hospitals provide each step.

What Is an Aortic Aneurysm?

Your aorta runs from your heart through your chest and into your abdomen, where it branches to supply your legs and pelvis. An aneurysm forms when a section of the aortic wall weakens and bulges outward, like a worn spot on a garden hose.

Doctors name an aneurysm by where it forms. An abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) forms in the belly and is the most common kind. A thoracic aortic aneurysm forms in the chest. Some involve both areas. Your care team measures the width of the bulge, because size and the speed of growth shape the plan.

Symptoms of an Aortic Aneurysm

Most aortic aneurysms cause no symptoms. When they do, you may notice:

  • A pulsing feeling in the belly
  • Deep, constant pain in the belly, back or side
  • Pain in the lower back, buttocks or legs
  • Chest or upper back pain, with a thoracic aneurysm
  • Hoarseness or trouble swallowing, with some thoracic aneurysms

New belly or back pain deserves an exam, particularly if you have risk factors.

When to Get Help Now

Call 911 or go to the emergency department for:

  • Sudden, severe or tearing pain in the chest, back or belly
  • Sudden pain along with sweating, dizziness, fainting or a racing heartbeat
  • A feeling that something has suddenly gone seriously wrong
  • Any new belly, back or side pain if you have a known aneurysm, even if it is mild

Call 911 instead of driving yourself. Care begins the moment paramedics arrive.

Call your care team the same day for:

  • A pulsing feeling in your belly you have not noticed before.
  • A question about a scan result or a change in the size of your aneurysm.

When you cannot tell which list you are in, call and describe what is happening; if nobody can be reached and it looks like the first list, go.

Causes of an Aortic Aneurysm

An aneurysm forms when the wall of the aorta weakens over time. Wear from high blood pressure, damage from smoking and atherosclerosis, an inherited connective tissue condition, and, rarely, an infection or injury can all weaken the wall until it bulges.

Risk Factors for an Aortic Aneurysm

Aneurysms are more common with age, and these factors raise the chance:

  • Age over 65
  • Smoking now or in the past, the strongest link to abdominal aneurysms
  • Male sex
  • High blood pressure
  • Atherosclerosis, the hardening and narrowing of arteries
  • High cholesterol
  • A close relative with an aortic aneurysm
  • A connective tissue condition such as Marfan syndrome or Ehlers-Danlos syndrome

Tell your care team about any relative who had an aneurysm. It is a reason to be checked.

Prevention of an Aortic Aneurysm

Not using tobacco is the most important step, since smoking is the strongest link to abdominal aneurysms. Keeping blood pressure and cholesterol in range also protects the aortic wall, and screening finds an aneurysm early, while it is small and can be watched.

Diagnosis of an Aortic Aneurysm

Because aneurysms are usually silent, imaging finds most of them:

  • Abdominal ultrasound. A painless scan using sound waves, and often the first test for an abdominal aneurysm.
  • CT angiography. Detailed pictures of the aorta that measure the aneurysm's size and shape.
  • MRI or MR angiography. An option that uses no radiation.
  • Echocardiogram. Looks at the start of the aorta near the heart.

When an aneurysm is found, scans repeat on a schedule your team sets so any change is caught early.

Screening for Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm

Baptist Health offers AAA screening proactively. A screening is a quick, painless ultrasound of the belly, usually done once. National guidance recommends it for men aged 65 to 75 who have ever smoked, and your doctor may suggest it for others, especially people with a close relative who had an aneurysm.

Treatment Options for an Aortic Aneurysm

The plan depends on the aneurysm's size, location, growth and your overall health. Many people with a small aneurysm are watched for years before any repair is considered, and some never need one.

Watchful Waiting and Risk-Factor Care

The standard approach for smaller aneurysms that cause no symptoms. Watching on a set schedule is active care. Controlling blood pressure and stopping smoking help protect the aorta.

Repair

Your care team recommends repair when an aneurysm grows large, grows quickly or causes symptoms. Repair strengthens the weakened section of the aorta, and a specialist explains which type fits your anatomy.

Endovascular Repair (EVAR)

Endovascular aneurysm repair, called EVAR, repairs an abdominal aneurysm from inside the artery. A doctor guides a thin tube through a small opening near the groin and places a fabric-covered stent graft inside the aorta. The graft routes blood through the weakened section, which lowers pressure on the bulge. Recovery is usually shorter than after open surgery, and the choice depends on your anatomy.

EVAR is offered at Baptist Health Brookwood Hospital, Baptist Health Princeton Hospital and Baptist Health Shelby Hospital.

You are welcome to a second opinion at any point.

Living With an Aortic Aneurysm

Watching an aneurysm means living with a question between scans. Ask your care team anything, tell them when the wait weighs on you, and keep every imaging appointment. Take blood pressure medicines as prescribed, stay active at the level your team advises, and avoid tobacco. A chaplain and spiritual care are available to any patient or family who would like them.

When to Talk to Your Care Team

Keep every imaging appointment and bring your blood pressure readings and medicine list to each visit. Report any new belly, back or chest discomfort right away, as the lists above say, and tell your team before you start heavy lifting or a new kind of exercise, and before you stop any medicine.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does an aortic aneurysm always need surgery?

No. Small aneurysms are usually monitored with scans. Repair is considered when size, growth or symptoms call for it, and you make that decision with your care team.

Should I be screened?

If you are a man aged 65 to 75 who has ever smoked, or you have a close relative with an aneurysm, ask your doctor about a screening ultrasound. Feeling well does not rule out an aneurysm.

Can I exercise with an aneurysm?

Light to moderate activity is often fine. Heavy lifting and straining may be limited depending on size. Ask your care team before you set your routine.

What is an aortic dissection?

A dissection is a tear in the inner layer of the aortic wall. It can happen with or without an aneurysm and needs emergency care. Sudden tearing pain in the chest or back is the classic sign, so call 911.

Does an aneurysm raise my risk of heart problems?

It shares causes with heart disease, including smoking, high blood pressure and atherosclerosis, so your team may also review your heart health. Learn more about coronary artery disease.

Who Treats It and Where

Type a city or zip code
Use My Location
Type a doctor's first or last name
Female Male
View Doctors with Online Scheduling
[n] doctors foundMany doctors have multiple practice locations. View the doctor's profile for a complete list of their locationsSort By: A to Z
[Doctor Name 1], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
[Doctor Name 2], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
[Doctor Name 3], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
123›

Related Pages

Related Service Lines
Heart and Vascular Care

Vascular specialists watch an aneurysm with scans and repair it when it grows or causes symptoms.

Learn More About Heart and Vascular Care
Radiology and Diagnostic Imaging

An abdominal ultrasound or CT scan finds an aneurysm and measures its size over time.

Learn More About Radiology and Diagnostic Imaging
Primary Care

Primary care can order a one-time aneurysm screening for people at higher risk.

Learn More About Primary Care
Conditions
Coronary artery disease

Coronary artery disease means the arteries that feed your heart have narrowed over time. It is common, it is treated every...

Learn More About Coronary artery disease
Peripheral artery disease

Peripheral artery disease means the arteries that bring blood to your legs have narrowed, so your legs get less blood than...

Learn More About Peripheral artery disease
Carotid artery disease

Carotid artery disease means the arteries on each side of your neck, which supply your brain, have narrowed. It often causes...

Learn More About Carotid artery disease
Deep vein thrombosis

Deep vein thrombosis, or DVT, is a blood clot in a deep vein, most often in the leg. It is treatable, and a quick, painless...

Learn More About Deep vein thrombosis
Varicose veins

Varicose veins are enlarged, twisted veins near the skin, usually in the legs, caused by weakened vein valves. They can...

Learn More About Varicose veins

References

  1. American Heart Association. Aortic Aneurysm.
    https://www.heart.org/en/health-topics/aortic-aneurysm
  2. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Aortic Aneurysm.
    https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/aortic-aneurysm
  3. MedlinePlus. Aortic Aneurysm.
    https://medlineplus.gov/aorticaneurysm.html
  4. US Preventive Services Task Force. Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm: Screening.
    https://www.uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org/uspstf/recommendation/abdominal-aortic-aneurysm-screening
  5. Society for Vascular Surgery. Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm.
    https://vascular.org/

Care for Your Arteries and Veins

Our practices diagnose and treat artery and vein conditions, from screening to procedures.

Find a Cardiologist

Carotid Artery Disease

Carotid artery disease means the arteries on each side of your neck, which supply your brain, have narrowed. It often causes no symptoms, and it is found with a painless ultrasound. Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, offers monitoring, stenting and surgery across Alabama.

Medically Reviewed Content
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Research and Evidence for This Page

This page's buttons: Find a Cardiologist. Read by someone with an artery or vein diagnosis or a screening result: the practice that treats it when only one does, otherwise the doctor finder for the specialty (Kim, 2026-10-22: never one practice over another).
RULINGEvery page's buttons are chosen for the reader who lands on it

A page shows zero, one or two buttons, each reasoned from the moment its reader is in. Leads go where a real decision exists (planning a birth, a diagnosis in pregnancy, a failed screen, a follow-up specialist, a pediatrician for a healthy newborn). A page read by a parent whose baby is in a NICU now offers the page's own help and the support every NICU family gets, never a sales button. No button anywhere asks anyone to choose a NICU.

  • Nobody plans a NICU stay: a baby comes to one from the delivery room or by transfer between hospitals, so a button to find one serves no reader.
  • A baby in a NICU already has its doctors at the bedside, and most families name a pediatrician before discharge, so a pediatrician button on an apnea page sells to nobody.
  • Serving the business and serving the parent are meant to agree: where no honest lead exists, help that keeps the family with Orlando Health is the business value.
  • Two slots are a ceiling, never a quota: a filler button beside a page's one real action comes off.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDRelated services are single service lines, in the designer's Services tab

Related services render as the Services tab of the designer's tabs module, as he drew them: six cards on a line page, each one service line on the ruled list, never two specialties under one name, each with one sentence on how that line joins a newborn's care.

  • The designer's service line and location frames show Services, Conditions and Treatments as three tabs, the Services tab holding six single-line cards with a sentence each.
  • The ruled list of children's service lines carries pediatric hematology and pediatric oncology, pulmonology and sleep medicine, neurology and neurosurgery as separate lines; a combined name matches no page that will exist.
  • A gate refuses any service card whose name is not a ruled line.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDThe page is set in Lufga, the typeface Orlando Health uses, at its three weights

Every page uses Lufga, loaded from orlandohealth.com, at 400, 500 and 700 only. Headings 700, the hero paragraph 500, body and buttons 400.

  • Read on orlandohealth.com, 2026-10-20: the site loads Lufga in three files, Regular 400, Medium 500 and Bold 700, and sets its headings at 700.
  • The designer's frames are set in the same face; an earlier build used a stand-in, which is why its weights read differently beside his frames.

Sources

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDButtons are the designer's slim pills, with an icon in the hero

Pills are about 2.4 times their label tall, regular weight, with no border on solid pills; the two hero pills are equal width across the paragraph, each led by an ink icon chosen from its label. The facility hero's pills carry no icon.

  • Measured across the designer's frames: every pill is 2.3 to 2.5 times its label tall, and the hero pills carry a calendar or a phone before the label.
  • A gate checks every rendered pill against these proportions.

Decided 2026-10-20

RESEARCHBreadcrumbs show a page's place in the site; a back link and the line card give the way back

A library page's breadcrumbs follow its address (Home, Health Library, Conditions, the page), because one condition page serves every line that treats it. The way back to the line comes from two other places: the first card in the page's Services tab is the line itself, always; and a visitor who arrived from a line, unit, team or program page also sees a Back link at the right of the crumb bar, naming that page.

  • Breadcrumbs should show a page's place in the site's hierarchy, never the visitor's history; history trails grow long and repetitive and do nothing for a visitor who arrives from search.
  • A page with more than one parent shows one canonical trail for everyone, which keeps the page's signal to search engines consistent.
  • A separate link back to where the visitor came from is a common pattern (a store's Back to Results) and leaves the canonical trail untouched.
  • Tested in the demo: a parent reading condition pages could not find the way back to the Neonatal Care page.

Sources

Decided 2026-10-21

The two carotid arteries run up each side of your neck and bring blood to your brain. In carotid artery disease, plaque (a fatty buildup) slowly narrows one or both of them. Most people who learn they have it feel well. It is often found during a check for something else, or after a warning sign.

The reason to care about it is stroke. A narrowed carotid artery can lead to a stroke over time, and the point of treating it is to lower that risk before anything happens. A diagnosis marks the start of a plan to protect your brain, and many people live for years with a narrowing that is watched and managed.

Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, evaluates and treats carotid artery disease at its Alabama practices and hospitals, with both stenting and open surgery available. Here is what the condition is, how it is found, and how treatment is chosen.

What Is Carotid Artery Disease?

Atherosclerosis is the slow buildup of plaque on the inner wall of an artery. When it forms in the carotid arteries, the channel narrows and the wall stiffens. Blood flow to the brain can drop, and a piece of plaque or a clot that forms at the narrowing can break loose and travel to a smaller artery in the brain. That event causes a stroke or a transient ischemic attack (TIA), sometimes called a mini-stroke.

The condition is closely related to coronary artery disease and peripheral artery disease, which share its causes. People diagnosed with one are often checked for the others.

Symptoms of Carotid Artery Disease

Carotid artery disease on its own usually causes no pain and no symptoms. A care provider may hear a whooshing sound called a bruit over the artery with a stethoscope, or a scan done for another reason may show the narrowing.

Symptoms appear when the brain is affected, as a TIA or stroke:

  • Sudden weakness or numbness in the face, arm or leg, often on one side
  • Sudden trouble speaking or understanding speech
  • Sudden vision changes in one or both eyes
  • Sudden dizziness or loss of balance
  • Sudden severe headache with no clear cause

When to Get Help Now

Call 911 or go to the emergency department for any of the BE FAST signs in you or someone with you:

  • Balance: sudden loss of balance or coordination
  • Eyes: sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes
  • Face: drooping or numbness, often on one side
  • Arm or leg: weakness, often on one side
  • Speech: slurred or hard to understand
  • Time: call 911 immediately

After carotid surgery, also call 911 for neck swelling that is growing, trouble breathing or swallowing, or bleeding from the incision.

Signs that fade on their own can still be a TIA, a warning that a stroke may follow, and a TIA needs a check right away. Call 911 instead of driving yourself. Care begins the moment paramedics arrive. After a TIA, a neurologist leads the evaluation, and the neurology team at Brookwood sets up the next steps.

Call your care team the same day for:

  • Unusual bruising or bleeding from a medicine that makes blood less likely to clot, or a question about stopping one before dental work or surgery.
  • Redness, warmth, drainage or mild pain at the neck incision or the catheter site that is not getting better.
  • Side effects from a blood pressure or cholesterol medicine.

When you cannot tell which list you are in, call and describe what is happening; if nobody can be reached and it looks like the first list, go.

Causes of Carotid Artery Disease

Carotid artery disease is caused by atherosclerosis: plaque builds up on the inner wall of the carotid arteries over many years. Damage to the artery lining from high blood pressure, high cholesterol, smoking or high blood sugar helps the plaque collect and grow.

Risk Factors for Carotid Artery Disease

  • High blood pressure, one of the most significant factors
  • High cholesterol
  • Smoking now or in the past
  • Diabetes
  • Age over 65
  • Coronary artery disease or a past heart attack
  • A family history of stroke or heart disease
  • Excess weight and low physical activity
  • A past TIA or stroke

Prevention of Carotid Artery Disease

Managing these risk factors is a central part of care. Routine screening is not recommended for people without symptoms, so ask your primary care doctor or cardiologist whether a scan makes sense for you. Not using tobacco, keeping blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar in range, staying active and eating mostly vegetables, fruit, whole grains and lean protein lower the risk and slow the disease once it is there.

Diagnosis of Carotid Artery Disease

  • Carotid duplex ultrasound. A painless scan of the neck that uses sound waves to show how open the arteries are and how fast blood moves. It involves no needles and no radiation, and it is usually the first test. See Doppler ultrasound.
  • CT angiography and MR angiography. Detailed pictures of the artery and the degree of narrowing.
  • Angiography. A catheter-based view of the arteries, used when other tests need confirming. See vascular angiography.

The degree of narrowing, and whether you have had symptoms, guide how often you are monitored and whether a procedure helps.

Treatment Options for Carotid Artery Disease

The right path depends on how narrow the artery is, whether you have had a warning sign, and your overall health. For many people the answer is careful management without a procedure.

Medicines and Monitoring

Medicine and risk-factor care are the foundation of nearly every plan: blood pressure and cholesterol control, stopping tobacco, and often a medicine that makes blood less likely to clot. Repeat ultrasound scans show whether the narrowing is stable or changing.

Procedures to Reopen the Artery

A procedure to reopen the artery is considered when the narrowing is significant or has caused a warning sign. The two procedures are carotid stenting and carotid endarterectomy, and your specialist explains which fits your anatomy and health.

Carotid stenting. Carotid stenting opens a narrowed carotid artery from the inside. A doctor passes a catheter into the artery, widens the narrowing, and places a small mesh tube called a stent to hold it open. A filter or a flow-protection method guards the brain during the procedure.

At Baptist Health, interventional cardiologists J Bradley Cavender, MD and Jan Skowronski, MD perform carotid stenting with the Cardiovascular Associates team.

Carotid endarterectomy. Carotid endarterectomy is an operation in which a surgeon opens the carotid artery in the neck and removes the plaque directly. It is offered at Baptist Health Brookwood Hospital, Baptist Health Shelby Hospital and Baptist Health Princeton Hospital. Your cardiologist coordinates the referral.

This is a decision you make together with your specialist, and a second opinion is always welcome.

Living With Carotid Artery Disease

Take your medicines every day, keep your blood pressure and cholesterol in the range your team sets, and stay tobacco-free. Keep every follow-up scan. Know the BE FAST signs and make sure the people close to you know them too. A chaplain and spiritual care are available to any patient or family who would like them.

When to Talk to Your Care Team

Keep every follow-up scan and bring your blood pressure readings and medicine list to each visit. Tell your team about side effects and before you stop any medicine. A warning sign that came and went is a TIA: call 911 the moment it happens, even if you feel fine now, and make sure your care team knows about it afterward.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a TIA, and is it an emergency?

A TIA is a brief episode of stroke-like symptoms caused by a temporary drop in blood flow to the brain. It usually clears within minutes to hours, yet it is a serious warning. Call 911 and get checked right away.

Can carotid artery disease cause a stroke?

Yes. It is one cause of stroke from blocked blood flow. Not everyone with carotid artery disease has a stroke, and finding and monitoring it is how the risk is lowered.

Do I need a procedure?

Many people do not. Mild to moderate narrowing with no warning signs is often managed with medicine and regular ultrasound. A procedure is considered when the narrowing is significant or has caused symptoms.

Does it affect both sides?

It can affect one or both arteries, and the degree can differ. Your scan checks both sides.

What is a carotid bruit?

A bruit is a whooshing sound a provider hears over the neck, caused by blood moving through a narrowed spot. It suggests narrowing, and an ultrasound confirms it.

Who Treats It and Where

Type a city or zip code
Use My Location
Type a doctor's first or last name
Female Male
View Doctors with Online Scheduling
[n] doctors foundMany doctors have multiple practice locations. View the doctor's profile for a complete list of their locationsSort By: A to Z
[Doctor Name 1], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
[Doctor Name 2], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
[Doctor Name 3], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
123›

Related Pages

Related Service Lines
Heart and Vascular Care

Vascular specialists follow a narrowed neck artery and reopen it with stenting or surgery when needed.

Learn More About Heart and Vascular Care
Neuroscience

Carotid narrowing can cause a stroke or TIA, and neurologists care for both.

Learn More About Neuroscience
Radiology and Diagnostic Imaging

A carotid ultrasound shows how narrow the neck arteries are, with no needles or radiation.

Learn More About Radiology and Diagnostic Imaging
Conditions
Coronary artery disease

Coronary artery disease means the arteries that feed your heart have narrowed over time. It is common, it is treated every...

Learn More About Coronary artery disease
Peripheral artery disease

Peripheral artery disease means the arteries that bring blood to your legs have narrowed, so your legs get less blood than...

Learn More About Peripheral artery disease
Aortic aneurysm

An aortic aneurysm is a weakened, bulging spot in the aorta, the body's largest blood vessel. Many cause no symptoms and are...

Learn More About Aortic aneurysm
Deep vein thrombosis

Deep vein thrombosis, or DVT, is a blood clot in a deep vein, most often in the leg. It is treatable, and a quick, painless...

Learn More About Deep vein thrombosis
Varicose veins

Varicose veins are enlarged, twisted veins near the skin, usually in the legs, caused by weakened vein valves. They can...

Learn More About Varicose veins
Treatments
Doppler ultrasound

A Doppler ultrasound uses sound waves to show how blood moves through the veins and arteries in your arms, legs and neck. It...

Learn More About Doppler ultrasound
Vascular angiography

Vascular angiography is an X-ray test that shows the inside of your blood vessels. Your care team injects contrast dye,...

Learn More About Vascular angiography

References

  1. American Heart Association. Carotid Artery Disease.
    https://www.heart.org/en/health-topics/consumer-healthcare/what-is-cardiovascular-disease/carotid-artery-disease
  2. American Stroke Association. Warning Signs of a Stroke (BE FAST).
    https://www.stroke.org/en/about-stroke/stroke-symptoms
  3. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. Transient Ischemic Attack.
    https://www.ninds.nih.gov/health-information/disorders/transient-ischemic-attack
  4. MedlinePlus. Carotid Artery Disease.
    https://medlineplus.gov/carotidarterydisease.html
  5. Society for Vascular Surgery. Carotid Artery Disease.
    https://vascular.org/

Care for Your Arteries and Veins

Our practices diagnose and treat artery and vein conditions, from screening to procedures.

Find a Cardiologist

Deep Vein Thrombosis

Deep vein thrombosis, or DVT, is a blood clot in a deep vein, most often in the leg. It is treatable, and a quick, painless ultrasound finds it. Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, diagnoses and treats DVT, and three of its hospitals have teams ready for a clot in the lungs.

Medically Reviewed Content
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Research and Evidence for This Page

This page's buttons: When to Get Help Now · Find a Cardiologist. Read by someone with an artery or vein diagnosis or a screening result: the practice that treats it when only one does, otherwise the doctor finder for the specialty (Kim, 2026-10-22: never one practice over another).
RULINGEvery page's buttons are chosen for the reader who lands on it

A page shows zero, one or two buttons, each reasoned from the moment its reader is in. Leads go where a real decision exists (planning a birth, a diagnosis in pregnancy, a failed screen, a follow-up specialist, a pediatrician for a healthy newborn). A page read by a parent whose baby is in a NICU now offers the page's own help and the support every NICU family gets, never a sales button. No button anywhere asks anyone to choose a NICU.

  • Nobody plans a NICU stay: a baby comes to one from the delivery room or by transfer between hospitals, so a button to find one serves no reader.
  • A baby in a NICU already has its doctors at the bedside, and most families name a pediatrician before discharge, so a pediatrician button on an apnea page sells to nobody.
  • Serving the business and serving the parent are meant to agree: where no honest lead exists, help that keeps the family with Orlando Health is the business value.
  • Two slots are a ceiling, never a quota: a filler button beside a page's one real action comes off.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDRelated services are single service lines, in the designer's Services tab

Related services render as the Services tab of the designer's tabs module, as he drew them: six cards on a line page, each one service line on the ruled list, never two specialties under one name, each with one sentence on how that line joins a newborn's care.

  • The designer's service line and location frames show Services, Conditions and Treatments as three tabs, the Services tab holding six single-line cards with a sentence each.
  • The ruled list of children's service lines carries pediatric hematology and pediatric oncology, pulmonology and sleep medicine, neurology and neurosurgery as separate lines; a combined name matches no page that will exist.
  • A gate refuses any service card whose name is not a ruled line.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDThe page is set in Lufga, the typeface Orlando Health uses, at its three weights

Every page uses Lufga, loaded from orlandohealth.com, at 400, 500 and 700 only. Headings 700, the hero paragraph 500, body and buttons 400.

  • Read on orlandohealth.com, 2026-10-20: the site loads Lufga in three files, Regular 400, Medium 500 and Bold 700, and sets its headings at 700.
  • The designer's frames are set in the same face; an earlier build used a stand-in, which is why its weights read differently beside his frames.

Sources

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDButtons are the designer's slim pills, with an icon in the hero

Pills are about 2.4 times their label tall, regular weight, with no border on solid pills; the two hero pills are equal width across the paragraph, each led by an ink icon chosen from its label. The facility hero's pills carry no icon.

  • Measured across the designer's frames: every pill is 2.3 to 2.5 times its label tall, and the hero pills carry a calendar or a phone before the label.
  • A gate checks every rendered pill against these proportions.

Decided 2026-10-20

RESEARCHBreadcrumbs show a page's place in the site; a back link and the line card give the way back

A library page's breadcrumbs follow its address (Home, Health Library, Conditions, the page), because one condition page serves every line that treats it. The way back to the line comes from two other places: the first card in the page's Services tab is the line itself, always; and a visitor who arrived from a line, unit, team or program page also sees a Back link at the right of the crumb bar, naming that page.

  • Breadcrumbs should show a page's place in the site's hierarchy, never the visitor's history; history trails grow long and repetitive and do nothing for a visitor who arrives from search.
  • A page with more than one parent shows one canonical trail for everyone, which keeps the page's signal to search engines consistent.
  • A separate link back to where the visitor came from is a common pattern (a store's Back to Results) and leaves the canonical trail untouched.
  • Tested in the demo: a parent reading condition pages could not find the way back to the Neonatal Care page.

Sources

Decided 2026-10-21

A swollen, sore or warm leg is easy to put off. If a clot is the cause, getting checked quickly is the step that makes the difference. Deep vein thrombosis, called DVT, is a blood clot that forms in a deep vein, most often in the calf, thigh or pelvis. It is common, it is treatable, and the test that finds it is quick and painless, often done the same day.

Clinicians act promptly on DVT because of one risk: a piece of the clot can break loose and travel to the lungs, which is called a pulmonary embolism (PE). Treatment is built to prevent that.

Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, evaluates and treats DVT through its Alabama heart and vascular practices, and Brookwood, Princeton and Shelby hospitals have pulmonary embolism response teams. This page covers the signs, the tests, treatment, and what happens when a clot reaches the lungs.

What Is Deep Vein Thrombosis?

Veins bring blood back to your heart. The deep veins, the larger ones that run through the muscle of your leg, do most of that work. A clot in one of them slows the return of blood and can break free.

DVT belongs to a wider group called venous disease. Chronic venous insufficiency happens when valves inside the leg veins weaken and blood pools. Post-thrombotic syndrome is the lasting leg swelling and aching that can follow a past DVT. Varicose veins are enlarged surface veins. These are different from a deep clot and are treated differently. If your concern is achy, swollen or visible veins, read about varicose veins.

Symptoms of Deep Vein Thrombosis

When DVT causes symptoms, they usually affect one leg:

  • Swelling, which can appear suddenly
  • Pain or tenderness in the calf or thigh, often like cramping or soreness
  • Warmth over the area
  • Red or discolored skin
  • A heavy, aching feeling

A clot can also cause no symptoms, and the first sign is sometimes a pulmonary embolism. Any unexplained leg swelling deserves a check, most of all after surgery, a long trip or another risk factor.

When to Get Help Now

Call 911 or go to the emergency department for:

  • Signs that a clot may have reached the lungs: sudden shortness of breath, chest pain, especially with a deep breath, a racing heartbeat, lightheadedness or fainting, or coughing up blood
  • Bleeding that will not stop, black or bloody stools, or vomiting blood, if you take a blood thinner

If you know you have a DVT and any of these start, call 911 and do not drive yourself.

Call your care team the same day for:

  • New swelling or pain in one leg, without the signs above.
  • Bruising or minor bleeding while taking a blood thinner.

If your doctor cannot see you the same day, go to urgent care or the emergency room.

When you cannot tell which list you are in, call and describe what is happening; if nobody can be reached and it looks like the first list, go.

Causes of Deep Vein Thrombosis

A clot forms in a deep vein when blood flows slowly, when the vein's lining is injured, or when the blood clots more easily than usual. Staying still for a long time, surgery or injury, and some medicines and medical conditions can each bring on one or more of these.

Risk Factors for Deep Vein Thrombosis

DVT can happen to anyone. The chance rises with:

  • Long periods without moving, such as a hospital stay or a long trip
  • Recent surgery or injury, particularly to the legs or pelvis
  • Active cancer or cancer treatment
  • Pregnancy and the weeks after delivery
  • Hormone medicines, including birth control pills and hormone therapy
  • A past DVT or pulmonary embolism
  • An inherited or acquired clotting disorder
  • Older age and excess weight
  • Heart failure, dehydration, or varicose veins

Prevention of Deep Vein Thrombosis

Talk with your care team about your own risk before surgery or a long trip. Walk regularly and stretch your legs on long trips, drink water, and ask your doctor about travel plans if you have had a clot.

Diagnosis of Deep Vein Thrombosis

  • Venous duplex ultrasound. The standard test. Sound waves show blood flowing through the deep veins and reveal a clot's location and size. See Doppler ultrasound.
  • D-dimer blood test. Measures a substance released when clots break down. A normal result can help rule out DVT when risk is low.
  • CT pulmonary angiography. Shows the lung arteries when a pulmonary embolism is suspected.
  • Venography. A contrast study used when other imaging is unclear.

After a DVT, your team may look for causes, such as a clotting disorder, depending on your history.

Treatment Options for Deep Vein Thrombosis

The plan depends on where the clot is, how large it is, whether it has reached the lungs, and your bleeding risk.

Blood Thinners

The main treatment for most DVT. They stop the clot from growing and lower the chance of new clots, with monitoring over time. Anticoagulation and INR monitoring are offered at Baptist Health's Sylacauga and Cardiovascular Associates main offices. See anticoagulation therapy and monitoring.

Catheter-Directed Clot Treatment

For larger or more serious clots, a thin catheter delivers clot-dissolving medicine directly to the clot. Baptist Health's interventional cardiology team provides this for DVT and PE, and your specialist tells you whether it fits you.

Pulmonary Embolism Response

When a clot may be in the lungs, speed and a coordinated team matter. Pulmonary embolism response teams (PERT) at Brookwood, Princeton and Shelby hospitals review each suspected case and decide together whether thrombectomy, a procedure that removes the clot, or medical treatment is the right path for that patient. The team matches the treatment to you.

Specialist Care and Follow-Up

Hematologists, doctors who specialize in blood conditions, cover complex clotting cases at all Baptist Health facilities. Regular visits lower the chance of another clot and watch for post-thrombotic changes.

Your plan is your own, made with your care team.

Living With Deep Vein Thrombosis

Take blood thinners exactly as prescribed and keep your monitoring visits. Report new swelling, pain or breathlessness quickly. A chaplain and spiritual care are available to any patient or family who would like them.

When to Talk to Your Care Team

Bring your medicine list to each visit, including over-the-counter pain relievers and supplements, since some change how blood thinners work. Tell your team before any surgery, dental work or long trip and before you stop a blood thinner, and call the same day if your leg swelling or aching gets worse or a new leg swells.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is DVT an emergency?

A leg clot needs evaluation the same day, because of the risk to the lungs. If you also have shortness of breath, chest pain or a racing heart, call 911.

What is a pulmonary embolism?

A PE happens when part of a clot, usually from a leg vein, travels to the lungs and blocks an artery. It ranges from mild to life-threatening, and it is the reason DVT is treated promptly.

Can I fly after a DVT?

Long flights raise clot risk, and the right precautions depend on your history. Talk with your care team before you book.

How is DVT different from varicose veins?

Varicose veins are enlarged surface veins, usually a matter of how the legs look and feel. DVT is a clot in a deep vein. A clot in a surface vein is a lower-risk matter than a deep clot.

What is post-thrombotic syndrome?

It is long-term swelling, aching, heaviness or skin change in a leg after a DVT, when the damaged vein does not fully recover. Your team can suggest monitoring and care.

Who Treats It and Where

Type a city or zip code
Use My Location
Type a doctor's first or last name
Female Male
View Doctors with Online Scheduling
[n] doctors foundMany doctors have multiple practice locations. View the doctor's profile for a complete list of their locationsSort By: A to Z
[Doctor Name 1], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
[Doctor Name 2], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
[Doctor Name 3], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
123›

Related Pages

Related Service Lines
Heart and Vascular Care

Vascular specialists confirm a deep vein clot and treat it with blood thinners or a catheter procedure.

Learn More About Heart and Vascular Care
Pulmonary and Critical Care

When a clot travels to the lungs, lung and critical care specialists help treat the pulmonary embolism.

Learn More About Pulmonary and Critical Care
Emergency and Trauma Care

Sudden breathlessness or chest pain with a leg clot is an emergency that starts in the ER.

Learn More About Emergency and Trauma Care
Cancer

Cancer and its treatment raise clot risk, so cancer teams watch for DVT and help prevent it.

Learn More About Cancer
Conditions
Varicose veins

Varicose veins are enlarged, twisted veins near the skin, usually in the legs, caused by weakened vein valves. They can...

Learn More About Varicose veins
Peripheral artery disease

Peripheral artery disease means the arteries that bring blood to your legs have narrowed, so your legs get less blood than...

Learn More About Peripheral artery disease
Aortic aneurysm

An aortic aneurysm is a weakened, bulging spot in the aorta, the body's largest blood vessel. Many cause no symptoms and are...

Learn More About Aortic aneurysm
Carotid artery disease

Carotid artery disease means the arteries on each side of your neck, which supply your brain, have narrowed. It often causes...

Learn More About Carotid artery disease
Treatments
Doppler ultrasound

A Doppler ultrasound uses sound waves to show how blood moves through the veins and arteries in your arms, legs and neck. It...

Learn More About Doppler ultrasound
Anticoagulation therapy and monitoring

Anticoagulants, often called blood thinners, lower the chance that a dangerous clot forms. If you take warfarin (Coumadin),...

Learn More About Anticoagulation therapy and monitoring

References

  1. American Heart Association. Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT).
    https://www.heart.org/en/health-topics/venous-thromboembolism
  2. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About Venous Thromboembolism.
    https://www.cdc.gov/blood-clots/about/index.html
  3. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Venous Thromboembolism.
    https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/venous-thromboembolism
  4. MedlinePlus. Deep Vein Thrombosis.
    https://medlineplus.gov/deepveinthrombosis.html
  5. Society for Vascular Surgery. Deep Vein Thrombosis.
    https://vascular.org/

Care for Your Arteries and Veins

Our practices diagnose and treat artery and vein conditions, from screening to procedures.

Find a Cardiologist

Varicose Veins

Varicose veins are enlarged, twisted veins near the skin, usually in the legs, caused by weakened vein valves. They can ache, swell and itch, and they respond to minimally invasive care. Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, treats them at the Baptist Health Vein Center in Hoover.

Medically Reviewed Content
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Research and Evidence for This Page

This page's buttons: Find a Vein Specialist. Read by someone with an artery or vein diagnosis or a screening result: the practice that treats it when only one does, otherwise the doctor finder for the specialty (Kim, 2026-10-22: never one practice over another).
RULINGEvery page's buttons are chosen for the reader who lands on it

A page shows zero, one or two buttons, each reasoned from the moment its reader is in. Leads go where a real decision exists (planning a birth, a diagnosis in pregnancy, a failed screen, a follow-up specialist, a pediatrician for a healthy newborn). A page read by a parent whose baby is in a NICU now offers the page's own help and the support every NICU family gets, never a sales button. No button anywhere asks anyone to choose a NICU.

  • Nobody plans a NICU stay: a baby comes to one from the delivery room or by transfer between hospitals, so a button to find one serves no reader.
  • A baby in a NICU already has its doctors at the bedside, and most families name a pediatrician before discharge, so a pediatrician button on an apnea page sells to nobody.
  • Serving the business and serving the parent are meant to agree: where no honest lead exists, help that keeps the family with Orlando Health is the business value.
  • Two slots are a ceiling, never a quota: a filler button beside a page's one real action comes off.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDRelated services are single service lines, in the designer's Services tab

Related services render as the Services tab of the designer's tabs module, as he drew them: six cards on a line page, each one service line on the ruled list, never two specialties under one name, each with one sentence on how that line joins a newborn's care.

  • The designer's service line and location frames show Services, Conditions and Treatments as three tabs, the Services tab holding six single-line cards with a sentence each.
  • The ruled list of children's service lines carries pediatric hematology and pediatric oncology, pulmonology and sleep medicine, neurology and neurosurgery as separate lines; a combined name matches no page that will exist.
  • A gate refuses any service card whose name is not a ruled line.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDThe page is set in Lufga, the typeface Orlando Health uses, at its three weights

Every page uses Lufga, loaded from orlandohealth.com, at 400, 500 and 700 only. Headings 700, the hero paragraph 500, body and buttons 400.

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Decided 2026-10-21

Legs that feel heavy by the end of the day, veins that bulge and twist under the skin, an ankle that swells in the evening: these are common, and many people live with them for years before asking about them. Varicose veins and the vein weakness behind them can be treated, often without surgery and with a short recovery.

Varicose veins are enlarged veins close to the skin's surface. They form when the small valves inside a vein stop closing properly, so blood pools instead of flowing steadily back toward the heart. Some vein problems are mainly a matter of appearance. Others cause pain, skin damage or ulcers, which is why a check is worthwhile.

Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, treats varicose veins and other vein conditions at the Baptist Health Vein Center in Hoover, and at Heart South Cardiovascular Group. Here is how vein disease develops, how it is diagnosed, and the treatments available.

What Are Varicose Veins?

Veins return blood from your legs to your heart, working against gravity. Small one-way valves inside each vein open to let blood up and close to keep it from falling back. When those valves weaken, blood gathers in the vein, and the vein stretches, bulges and twists. Doctors call this vein disease or venous disease.

Spider veins are the thinner, web-like cousins of varicose veins. They seldom cause discomfort, and a physician should look at them if they become painful.

Chronic Venous Insufficiency

Chronic venous insufficiency (CVI) is the longer-term form of vein disease. Varicose veins left untreated can progress to CVI, in which poor drainage from the legs causes ongoing swelling, aching and heaviness, darkening or hardening of the skin around the ankles, and in advanced cases open sores called venous stasis ulcers on the lower calf and ankle.

Symptoms of Varicose Veins

  • Visible bulging, twisted or bluish veins in the legs
  • Swelling or heaviness in the legs, often worse at day's end
  • Aching, throbbing or cramping, including night cramps and restless legs
  • Burning or itching skin over a vein
  • Skin discoloration or a dry or weeping rash near the ankle
  • Skin breakdown or sores that heal slowly

Symptoms often grow worse when you stand or stay seated in one position for a long time.

When to Get Help Now

Call 911 or go to the emergency department for:

  • Leg swelling that comes with sudden shortness of breath or chest pain, which can signal a clot that has reached the lungs.
  • A varicose vein that keeps bleeding after you lie down, raise the leg and press firmly on it.

Call your care team the same day for:

  • A sudden, painful, swollen leg, which may be a clot in a deep vein. Read about deep vein thrombosis.
  • A varicose vein that bleeds and stops when you lie down, raise the leg and press firmly, or a sore on the leg or ankle that is new or getting worse.

See a doctor when veins ache or swell, when skin changes appear, or when you have a sore on the leg or ankle. These signs mean the vein disease is advancing, and earlier treatment can slow that.

When you cannot tell which list you are in, call and describe what is happening; if nobody can be reached and it looks like the first list, go.

Causes of Varicose Veins

Varicose veins form when the small one-way valves inside a leg vein weaken and stop closing fully. Blood then flows backward and pools, and the extra pressure stretches the vein wall until it bulges and twists.

Risk Factors for Varicose Veins

These raise the chance of weakened vein valves:

  • A family history of varicose veins
  • Age, because valves wear over time
  • Pregnancy, which changes blood volume and pressure in the legs
  • Standing or staying seated in one position for long hours
  • Excess weight
  • A past leg injury or a past deep vein clot

Prevention of Varicose Veins

You cannot change some of these, and you can influence others with movement, healthy weight and leg elevation. Walking most days, changing position through the day, reaching a healthy weight and raising your legs when you rest help blood move up the leg and can slow new varicose veins from forming.

Diagnosis of Varicose Veins

Your care team asks about your symptoms, examines your legs, and uses a duplex ultrasound to see the veins. The scan is painless. It shows the vein's structure, which valves are leaking, and which way blood is flowing. See Doppler ultrasound. The Vein Center also performs venous flow studies to map how blood moves through your leg veins and to choose the treatment that fits.

Treatment Options for Varicose Veins

Treatment depends on which veins are leaking and how much they bother you. The Vein Center offers the full range of vein procedures, using minimally invasive techniques that reduce pain and speed recovery.

Everyday Care

Compression stockings, walking, leg elevation and avoiding long stretches in one position. CVI is treated by repairing or closing the leaking veins and by supportive care such as compression stockings and leg elevation. Early diagnosis and treatment can stop the progression, which is a strong reason to seek care when symptoms first appear.

Vein Procedures

  • Endovenous ablation. A thin catheter guided by ultrasound seals a diseased vein with controlled heat, and blood reroutes through healthier veins.
  • Sclerotherapy. A medicine injected into a vein shrinks it, sometimes over a series of treatments, and ultrasound can guide it.
  • Phlebectomy. Small punctures or incisions remove varicose veins close to the skin.

Your provider explains which treatment fits your veins.

Living With Varicose Veins

Move often. Walk, change position through the day, and raise your legs when you rest. Compression stockings help many people. Keep your follow-up visits, and report new skin changes or sores promptly. Care for your skin and protect your legs from injury. A chaplain and spiritual care are available to any patient or family who would like them.

When to Talk to Your Care Team

Tell your team when leg aching, swelling or heaviness gets in the way of your day, when the skin near your ankle changes color or texture, or when a sore is slow to heal. After a vein procedure, keep every follow-up visit and any scan your team schedules.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are varicose veins dangerous?

Some cause only cosmetic concerns, while others lead to pain, skin damage, ulcers or blood clots. A check tells you which applies to you.

Do varicose veins go away on their own?

They tend to continue and can progress. Treatment closes or removes the diseased veins, and walking and compression ease the symptoms.

Is treatment painful, and how long is recovery?

The procedures are minimally invasive, designed to ease pain and speed recovery. Your provider explains what to expect for the treatment you need.

What is the difference between varicose veins and spider veins?

Spider veins are small and thin, close to the skin, and rarely uncomfortable. Varicose veins are larger, raised and twisted, and they may ache or swell.

How do I make an appointment?

Request an appointment online or call the Vein Center at (205) 949-9289. The online form sends a request and does not confirm an appointment. A representative contacts you within two business days.

Who Treats It and Where

  • Baptist Health Vein Center, Hoover. 5295 Preserve Pkwy, Suite 270, Hoover, AL 35244. The team of John Eagan, MD, cardiology, and Kathleen Sentell, PA, offers venous ablation, venous flow studies, sclerotherapy and the full range of vein procedures. Call (205) 949-9289 or request an appointment online.
  • Heart South Cardiovascular Group. Its vein center treats varicose veins, spider veins and chronic venous insufficiency with duplex ultrasound, radiofrequency ablation, sclerotherapy and phlebectomy, and offers a free vascular screening. Book through heartsouthpc.com.
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Related Pages

Related Service Lines
Heart and Vascular Care

Vein specialists close or remove leaking veins to ease aching, swelling and skin changes.

Learn More About Heart and Vascular Care
Women's Care

Pregnancy can bring on or worsen varicose veins, and many ease in the months after birth.

Learn More About Women's Care
Conditions
Deep vein thrombosis

Deep vein thrombosis, or DVT, is a blood clot in a deep vein, most often in the leg. It is treatable, and a quick, painless...

Learn More About Deep vein thrombosis
Peripheral artery disease

Peripheral artery disease means the arteries that bring blood to your legs have narrowed, so your legs get less blood than...

Learn More About Peripheral artery disease
Aortic aneurysm

An aortic aneurysm is a weakened, bulging spot in the aorta, the body's largest blood vessel. Many cause no symptoms and are...

Learn More About Aortic aneurysm
Carotid artery disease

Carotid artery disease means the arteries on each side of your neck, which supply your brain, have narrowed. It often causes...

Learn More About Carotid artery disease
Treatments
Doppler ultrasound

A Doppler ultrasound uses sound waves to show how blood moves through the veins and arteries in your arms, legs and neck. It...

Learn More About Doppler ultrasound
Endovenous ablation

Endovenous ablation closes a leaking varicose vein from the inside. Guided by ultrasound, your doctor places a thin catheter...

Learn More About Endovenous ablation
Sclerotherapy for varicose veins

Sclerotherapy treats spider veins and varicose veins with a small injection. A medicine goes into the affected vein, the...

Learn More About Sclerotherapy for varicose veins
Phlebectomy

Phlebectomy removes varicose veins through tiny punctures or small cuts in the skin. Numbing medicine keeps the area free of...

Learn More About Phlebectomy

References

  1. MedlinePlus. Varicose Veins.
    https://medlineplus.gov/varicoseveins.html
  2. MedlinePlus. Chronic Venous Insufficiency.
    https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/000203.htm
  3. Society for Vascular Surgery. Vein Disease.
    https://vascular.org/
  4. American Vein and Lymphatic Society. Patient Resources.
    https://www.veinlymph.org/

Care for Your Arteries and Veins

Our practices diagnose and treat artery and vein conditions, from screening to procedures.

Find a Cardiologist

Heart and Vascular Treatments

The tests, procedures and therapies our heart and vascular teams provide, from monitoring and medicines to valve repair and replacement. Each page explains what happens, how to prepare and what recovery looks like.

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Anticoagulation therapy and monitoring

Anticoagulants, often called blood thinners, lower the chance that a dangerous clot forms. If you take warfarin (Coumadin), regular blood checks guide your dose. Heart South's Coumadin clinic watches your results closely and adjusts your medicine when needed, so you stay in a safe range.

Learn More
Aortic aneurysm

An aortic aneurysm is a weakened, bulging spot in the aorta, the body's largest blood vessel. Many cause no symptoms and are found by scan, then watched over time. Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, offers screening, monitoring and repair across Alabama.

Learn More
Aortic valve repair or replacement

Aortic valve surgery replaces, or in some cases repairs, the valve that sends blood from your heart to the rest of your body. It relieves breathlessness, chest pressure and fainting caused by a narrowed or leaking valve.

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Atrial fibrillation

Atrial fibrillation, or AFib, is the most common heart rhythm problem: the upper chambers beat in a fast, irregular pattern. It is manageable, and Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, treats it with heart rhythm specialists, testing, procedures and follow-up across Alabama.

Learn More
Cardiac catheter ablation

Cardiac catheter ablation treats an abnormal heart rhythm from inside the heart. Thin tubes guided through a vein find the tiny area sending faulty signals, and energy treats it. It can lessen or end palpitations and other symptoms of an arrhythmia.

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Cardiac catheterization

Cardiac catheterization uses a thin, flexible tube guided through a blood vessel to your heart. It shows your doctor how well your arteries and heart are working, and it can find a blockage. Many people go home the same day.

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Cardiac rehabilitation

A medically supervised program of exercise, education and support that helps you rebuild strength after a heart attack, a stent, heart surgery or a heart failure diagnosis. Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, offers cardiac rehabilitation at Princeton, Shelby and Calhoun hospitals. Most programs run 36 sessions.

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Cardioversion

Cardioversion resets a heart that is beating too fast or out of rhythm, most often in atrial fibrillation. You are given medicine to sleep, a timed electrical shock restores a regular beat, and most people go home the same day.

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Carotid artery disease

Carotid artery disease means the arteries on each side of your neck, which supply your brain, have narrowed. It often causes no symptoms, and it is found with a painless ultrasound. Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, offers monitoring, stenting and surgery across Alabama.

Learn More
Coronary angioplasty and stents

Coronary angioplasty opens a narrowed or blocked heart artery with a tiny balloon, and a stent, a small mesh tube, keeps it open. It treats chest pain from coronary artery disease and restores blood flow during a heart attack.

Learn More
Coronary artery bypass surgery

Coronary artery bypass surgery uses a healthy blood vessel from another part of your body to route blood around a blocked heart artery. It is a major operation that relieves chest pain and helps blood reach your heart muscle again.

Learn More
Coronary artery disease

Coronary artery disease means the arteries that feed your heart have narrowed over time. It is common, it is treated every day, and most people manage it for years. Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, cares for it across its Alabama practices and hospitals.

Learn More
Coronary calcium scoring

A quick heart scan that measures the calcium in your heart's arteries, an early sign of plaque build-up. It needs no dye, no needles and no fasting, and the scan itself takes about five minutes. Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, offers it through Heart South, and your score helps your doctor judge your risk.

Learn More
Deep vein thrombosis

Deep vein thrombosis, or DVT, is a blood clot in a deep vein, most often in the leg. It is treatable, and a quick, painless ultrasound finds it. Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, diagnoses and treats DVT, and three of its hospitals have teams ready for a clot in the lungs.

Learn More
Doppler ultrasound

A Doppler ultrasound uses sound waves to show how blood moves through the veins and arteries in your arms, legs and neck. It involves no needles, no dye and no radiation, and it helps your care team find a blockage, a clot or a leaking vein.

Learn More
Echocardiogram

A painless ultrasound of your heart. Sound waves make a moving picture that shows the size and thickness of your heart, how well it pumps and how its four valves open and close. Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, offers echocardiograms at its hospitals and at heart practice offices across Alabama.

Learn More
Endovenous ablation

Endovenous ablation closes a leaking varicose vein from the inside. Guided by ultrasound, your doctor places a thin catheter in the vein and heats its wall, and blood reroutes through healthy veins. The procedure takes place in the office, and most people walk out afterward and return to daily life within days.

Learn More
Exercise stress test

A test that records your heart's rhythm and blood pressure while you walk on a treadmill, to show how your heart responds when it works harder. It helps your doctor find heart disease, rhythm problems and damage. If you cannot exercise, medicine can give your heart the same stress.

Learn More
Heart arrhythmia (tachycardia and bradycardia)

A heart arrhythmia is a problem with the heart's electrical signals, so the heart beats too fast, too slow or unevenly. Many are manageable. Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, offers rhythm testing, ablation and devices through heart rhythm specialists in Alabama.

Learn More
Heart attack

A heart attack happens when blood flow to part of the heart muscle is suddenly blocked. It is an emergency: call 911. Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, provides emergency heart care, then follow-up and rehabilitation close to home across Alabama.

Learn More
Heart failure

Heart failure means the heart pumps with less force than your body needs. It does not mean the heart has stopped. Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, manages it through its cardiologists across Alabama, with testing, medicine and follow-up close to home.

Learn More
Heart valve disease

Heart valve disease means one or more of the heart's four valves does not open or close as it should. Many people are monitored for years. Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, offers valve testing, a Valve Clinic, catheter-based valve procedures and valve surgery in Alabama.

Learn More
Holter monitor

A small, wearable heart recorder that tracks your heart's rhythm for a day or two while you go about your normal day. It helps your doctor find rhythm problems that come and go, such as skipped beats, a racing heart or pauses. Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, offers heart rhythm monitoring in its Alabama heart practices and hospitals.

Learn More
Implantable cardiac loop recorder placement

An implantable loop recorder is a very small device placed just under the skin of your chest. It records your heart rhythm for months or years, so your doctor can find out why you faint, feel palpitations, or have had a stroke with no clear cause.

Learn More
Implantable cardioverter-defibrillator placement

An implantable cardioverter-defibrillator, or ICD, is a small device placed under the skin. It watches your heart rhythm around the clock and treats a dangerously fast rhythm, with pacing or a shock, to protect you from sudden cardiac arrest.

Learn More
Left atrial appendage closure

Left atrial appendage closure seals a small pouch in the heart where clots form in atrial fibrillation, to lower stroke risk. It is a one-time catheter procedure for people who cannot stay on blood thinners for life.

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Mitral valve repair or replacement

Mitral valve surgery repairs a leaking or narrowed valve between the upper and lower left chambers of your heart, or replaces it when repair is not possible. Your surgeon chooses the best option for your valve and your health.

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Nuclear stress test

A heart imaging test that compares pictures of your heart at rest and under stress, using a small amount of radioactive tracer to show how well blood reaches your heart muscle. Stress comes from treadmill exercise or from medicine. Plan on three to four hours at Heart South's office.

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Pacemaker implantation

A pacemaker is a small device placed under the skin near your collarbone. It senses a heartbeat that is too slow or pauses, and sends a small electrical signal that keeps your heart beating at a regular rate.

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Peripheral artery angioplasty and stenting

Angioplasty and stenting open a narrowed artery in the leg or elsewhere outside the heart, using a thin tube and a tiny balloon. It can ease leg pain when walking and helps blood reach tissue that needs it. Most people go home the same day.

Learn More
Peripheral artery disease

Peripheral artery disease means the arteries that bring blood to your legs have narrowed, so your legs get less blood than they need. It is common, it can be found with a painless test, and it responds to care. Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, treats it across Alabama.

Learn More
Phlebectomy

Phlebectomy removes varicose veins through tiny punctures or small cuts in the skin. Numbing medicine keeps the area free of pain, and the procedure treats bulging surface veins that cause aching, heaviness and swelling. Many people go home the same day and walk right away.

Learn More
Pulmonary Embolism Response Team

Specialists at three Baptist Health hospitals who decide together how to treat a blood clot in the lungs.

Learn More
Sclerotherapy for varicose veins

Sclerotherapy treats spider veins and varicose veins with a small injection. A medicine goes into the affected vein, the vein shrinks, and blood moves through healthier veins. Visits are short, and some people need a series of treatments to reach the result they want.

Learn More
Structural Heart Program

A team that repairs heart valves and closes the heart's appendage through a small tube, often instead of open-heart surgery.

Learn More
Transcatheter aortic valve replacement

Transcatheter aortic valve replacement, or TAVR, gives you a new aortic valve through a thin tube placed in an artery, without opening your chest. It treats severe aortic stenosis, and a team of heart doctors decides together whether it is right for you.

Learn More
Transcatheter mitral valve repair

Transcatheter mitral valve repair fixes a leaking mitral valve with a small clip placed through a vein in the leg, without opening the chest. It can ease breathlessness and tiredness for people whose valve leaks and who are weighing surgery.

Learn More
Varicose veins

Varicose veins are enlarged, twisted veins near the skin, usually in the legs, caused by weakened vein valves. They can ache, swell and itch, and they respond to minimally invasive care. Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, treats them at the Baptist Health Vein Center in Hoover.

Learn More
Vascular angiography

Vascular angiography is an X-ray test that shows the inside of your blood vessels. Your care team injects contrast dye, takes images as it flows through your arteries or veins, and can see narrowings, blockages and other changes in your legs, neck, belly or arms.

Learn More

Cardiac Catheterization

Cardiac catheterization uses a thin, flexible tube guided through a blood vessel to your heart. It shows your doctor how well your arteries and heart are working, and it can find a blockage. Many people go home the same day.

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Pills are about 2.4 times their label tall, regular weight, with no border on solid pills; the two hero pills are equal width across the paragraph, each led by an ink icon chosen from its label. The facility hero's pills carry no icon.

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RESEARCHBreadcrumbs show a page's place in the site; a back link and the line card give the way back

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Your doctor may have told you that you need a "cath" or a "heart cath." Cardiac catheterization is one of the most common heart procedures. It lets your cardiologist look directly at the arteries that feed your heart and measure how your heart is working, so the next step in your care is based on what they see.

Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, performs cardiac catheterization at hospitals across its Alabama communities. Your care team explains each step before it happens and answers every question you have.

A cath is often planned ahead, after a stress test, an echocardiogram or your symptoms point to a problem your cardiologist needs to see directly, and it is also done urgently during a heart attack. You will know before the day whether a stent might be placed during the same visit. This page covers why it is ordered, how to get ready, what happens during the test, its risks, and how to understand your results.

What Is a Cardiac Catheterization?

A catheter is a long, thin, flexible tube. In cardiac catheterization, a cardiologist guides one through a small opening in a blood vessel, usually in your wrist or your groin, up to your heart. X-ray video shows the catheter and your blood vessels as it moves. Through the catheter, your doctor can:

  • Inject contrast dye so your coronary arteries show up clearly on the X-ray picture. This part is called a coronary angiogram.
  • Measure blood pressure and oxygen levels inside the chambers of your heart.
  • Open a blocked artery in the same visit, when that is the right step. That treatment is called coronary angioplasty and stents.

Both wrist (radial) and groin (femoral) access are available at Baptist Health. Your cardiologist chooses the one that is best for you.

Why a Cardiac Catheterization Is Ordered

A cath gives your cardiologist the clearest view of the coronary arteries and the pressures inside the heart, so a decision about treatment rests on what is actually there.

Who Needs One

Your cardiologist may recommend a cath when:

A cath can show a blockage that other tests only suggest. When your doctor finds one, you can talk through the choices: medicine, angioplasty and a stent, or bypass surgery.

How to Prepare

Your care team gives you written instructions for your own procedure. Most people are asked to:

  • Stop eating and drinking for several hours beforehand.
  • Take or hold certain medicines as directed, especially blood thinners and diabetes medicines. Never stop a heart medicine unless your team tells you to.
  • Tell your team about any allergy to contrast dye, iodine, or latex, and about kidney problems.
  • Arrange for an adult to drive you home and stay with you the first night.
  • Bring a list of all your medicines.
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What Happens During the Test

You change into a gown and a nurse starts an IV. You are awake, because that lets your cardiologist talk with you, and you receive medicine through the IV to help you relax. The skin where the catheter goes in is numbed.

Your cardiologist guides the catheter to your heart, watching the X-ray screen. When the dye goes in, many people feel a warm flush for a few seconds. The pictures are taken, the measurements are made, and the catheter comes out. A diagnostic cath usually takes about 30 to 60 minutes. If your doctor opens a blocked artery in the same visit, it takes longer.

After the Test

After the catheter comes out, a nurse or technician presses on the spot, or places a wrist band or closure device, to stop bleeding. You rest in a recovery area. Wrist access usually allows a shorter rest than groin access, where you lie flat for a few hours. Most people go home after about six hours.

At home, rest and avoid heavy lifting and hard exercise for a day or two, or as long as your team says.

Risks

A cath is a very common procedure and serious problems are uncommon. Possible risks include:

  • Bruising or bleeding where the catheter went in
  • A reaction to the contrast dye
  • Strain on the kidneys from the dye, more likely if you already have kidney disease
  • An irregular heartbeat during the procedure
  • Rarely, damage to a blood vessel or the heart, a heart attack, a stroke, or death

Your cardiologist talks with you about the risks that apply to you before you sign a consent form.

Understanding Your Results

Results come quickly. Your cardiologist can usually describe what they saw while you are in recovery. The pictures show whether any artery is narrowed and by how much, and the pressure and oxygen readings show how the chambers and valves are working. Your cardiologist then explains your options and plans your next visit. If you received a stent or had other treatment, you get separate instructions.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is cardiac catheterization open-heart surgery?

No. There is no cut in your chest. The catheter goes through a small puncture in your wrist or groin.

Will it hurt?

Most people feel pressure when the catheter goes in and little else. The area is numbed, and the medicine helps you relax. Tell your team if you feel discomfort.

Can I go home the same day?

Most people with a diagnostic cath go home the same day. If you have a stent placed, you may stay overnight.

When should I call my doctor after I go home?

Call your cardiologist if the puncture site bleeds, swells, or looks red; if your leg or hand feels cold, numb, or changes color; or if you have a fever. Call 911 for chest pain, trouble breathing, or bleeding that does not stop with firm pressure.

Will I be awake during a cardiac catheterization?

Yes, usually. You receive medicine through an IV to help you relax, and the skin where the catheter goes in is numbed, so most people feel pressure but little pain. Being awake lets your cardiologist talk with you during the test.

Who Provides It and Where

Cardiac catheterization is done in a hospital cath lab. Baptist Health cardiologists perform it at these hospitals:

Angioplasty and stents are available at Brookwood, Princeton, Shelby, and Calhoun. If your cath is at Walker, your team arranges the next step with you.

You see your cardiologist in an office before and after the procedure:

Each practice schedules its own appointments.

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[Doctor Name 1], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
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Comprehensive Care

Related Service Lines
Heart and Vascular Care

Cardiologists perform the cath to see the heart arteries and measure pressures, often treating a blockage too.

Learn More About Heart and Vascular Care
Emergency and Trauma Care

During a heart attack, a cath is done urgently to find and open the blocked artery.

Learn More About Emergency and Trauma Care
Conditions
Coronary artery disease

Coronary artery disease means the arteries that feed your heart have narrowed over time. It is common, it is treated every...

Learn More About Coronary artery disease
Heart failure

Heart failure means the heart pumps with less force than your body needs. It does not mean the heart has stopped. Baptist...

Learn More About Heart failure
Heart attack

A heart attack happens when blood flow to part of the heart muscle is suddenly blocked. It is an emergency: call 911....

Learn More About Heart attack
Heart valve disease

Heart valve disease means one or more of the heart's four valves does not open or close as it should. Many people are...

Learn More About Heart valve disease
Treatments
Coronary angioplasty and stents

Coronary angioplasty opens a narrowed or blocked heart artery with a tiny balloon, and a stent, a small mesh tube, keeps it...

Learn More About Coronary angioplasty and stents
Exercise stress test

A test that records your heart's rhythm and blood pressure while you walk on a treadmill, to show how your heart responds...

Learn More About Exercise stress test
Nuclear stress test

A heart imaging test that compares pictures of your heart at rest and under stress, using a small amount of radioactive...

Learn More About Nuclear stress test
Echocardiogram

A painless ultrasound of your heart. Sound waves make a moving picture that shows the size and thickness of your heart, how...

Learn More About Echocardiogram
Coronary artery bypass surgery

Coronary artery bypass surgery uses a healthy blood vessel from another part of your body to route blood around a blocked...

Learn More About Coronary artery bypass surgery
Holter monitor

A small, wearable heart recorder that tracks your heart's rhythm for a day or two while you go about your normal day. It...

Learn More About Holter monitor

References

Written with the Baptist Health heart and vascular teams.

Scheduling Your Test

Your doctor orders the test and the practice schedules it. Ask the practice that ordered it about times and preparation.

Find a Cardiologist

Coronary Angioplasty and Stents

Coronary angioplasty opens a narrowed or blocked heart artery with a tiny balloon, and a stent, a small mesh tube, keeps it open. It treats chest pain from coronary artery disease and restores blood flow during a heart attack.

Medically Reviewed Content
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Research and Evidence for This Page

This page's buttons: Find a Cardiologist. Read by someone weighing a procedure: the practice that performs it when only one does, otherwise the doctor finder for a first consultation or a second opinion.
RULINGEvery page's buttons are chosen for the reader who lands on it

A page shows zero, one or two buttons, each reasoned from the moment its reader is in. Leads go where a real decision exists (planning a birth, a diagnosis in pregnancy, a failed screen, a follow-up specialist, a pediatrician for a healthy newborn). A page read by a parent whose baby is in a NICU now offers the page's own help and the support every NICU family gets, never a sales button. No button anywhere asks anyone to choose a NICU.

  • Nobody plans a NICU stay: a baby comes to one from the delivery room or by transfer between hospitals, so a button to find one serves no reader.
  • A baby in a NICU already has its doctors at the bedside, and most families name a pediatrician before discharge, so a pediatrician button on an apnea page sells to nobody.
  • Serving the business and serving the parent are meant to agree: where no honest lead exists, help that keeps the family with Orlando Health is the business value.
  • Two slots are a ceiling, never a quota: a filler button beside a page's one real action comes off.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDRelated services are single service lines, in the designer's Services tab

Related services render as the Services tab of the designer's tabs module, as he drew them: six cards on a line page, each one service line on the ruled list, never two specialties under one name, each with one sentence on how that line joins a newborn's care.

  • The designer's service line and location frames show Services, Conditions and Treatments as three tabs, the Services tab holding six single-line cards with a sentence each.
  • The ruled list of children's service lines carries pediatric hematology and pediatric oncology, pulmonology and sleep medicine, neurology and neurosurgery as separate lines; a combined name matches no page that will exist.
  • A gate refuses any service card whose name is not a ruled line.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDThe page is set in Lufga, the typeface Orlando Health uses, at its three weights

Every page uses Lufga, loaded from orlandohealth.com, at 400, 500 and 700 only. Headings 700, the hero paragraph 500, body and buttons 400.

  • Read on orlandohealth.com, 2026-10-20: the site loads Lufga in three files, Regular 400, Medium 500 and Bold 700, and sets its headings at 700.
  • The designer's frames are set in the same face; an earlier build used a stand-in, which is why its weights read differently beside his frames.

Sources

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDButtons are the designer's slim pills, with an icon in the hero

Pills are about 2.4 times their label tall, regular weight, with no border on solid pills; the two hero pills are equal width across the paragraph, each led by an ink icon chosen from its label. The facility hero's pills carry no icon.

  • Measured across the designer's frames: every pill is 2.3 to 2.5 times its label tall, and the hero pills carry a calendar or a phone before the label.
  • A gate checks every rendered pill against these proportions.

Decided 2026-10-20

RESEARCHBreadcrumbs show a page's place in the site; a back link and the line card give the way back

A library page's breadcrumbs follow its address (Home, Health Library, Conditions, the page), because one condition page serves every line that treats it. The way back to the line comes from two other places: the first card in the page's Services tab is the line itself, always; and a visitor who arrived from a line, unit, team or program page also sees a Back link at the right of the crumb bar, naming that page.

  • Breadcrumbs should show a page's place in the site's hierarchy, never the visitor's history; history trails grow long and repetitive and do nothing for a visitor who arrives from search.
  • A page with more than one parent shows one canonical trail for everyone, which keeps the page's signal to search engines consistent.
  • A separate link back to where the visitor came from is a common pattern (a store's Back to Results) and leaves the canonical trail untouched.
  • Tested in the demo: a parent reading condition pages could not find the way back to the Neonatal Care page.

Sources

Decided 2026-10-21

If your cardiologist found a blockage in an artery that feeds your heart, you may hear the words angioplasty and stent in the same breath. They describe one procedure, also called percutaneous coronary intervention, or PCI. It opens the artery from the inside, through a small puncture in your wrist or groin, with no cut in your chest.

Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, performs angioplasty and stenting at four hospitals in Alabama, for planned procedures and for heart attacks. This page explains what to expect, so you walk in knowing the steps.

A planned angioplasty usually follows a heart catheterization that shows where the blockage is, and sometimes the stent is placed during that same visit. You will know the plan before you go in. This page covers why your cardiologist may recommend it, how to get ready, what the day and the weeks after look like, and the risks to weigh.

What Are Angioplasty and Stents?

Over time, plaque, a build-up of fat and cholesterol, can narrow a coronary artery. This is coronary artery disease. Angioplasty pushes the plaque against the artery wall so blood flows more freely. A cardiologist guides a thin tube with a deflated balloon at its tip to the blockage, then inflates the balloon.

In most cases the cardiologist leaves a stent in place. A stent is a small, expandable mesh tube that holds the artery open. Most stents today are drug-eluting, which means they are coated with medicine that is released slowly to help the artery stay open. Within about a month, the lining of your artery grows over the stent. A stent is permanent.

For blockages packed with hard calcium, cardiologists can use a rotating tip to clear the way first, called rotational atherectomy. Pictures from inside the artery (IVUS and OCT) and a pressure measurement (FFR) can show exactly where a stent is needed. These tools are available at Baptist Health.

Why Angioplasty and Stents Are Performed

Angioplasty and a stent restore blood flow through a narrowed coronary artery. In a planned procedure the aim is to ease chest pain and breathlessness so you can do more; during a heart attack the aim is to open the artery fast and save heart muscle.

Who Is a Candidate

Your cardiologist may recommend angioplasty and a stent when:

  • A blockage causes chest pain, shortness of breath, or limits blood flow to your heart.
  • Medicine and lifestyle changes have not controlled your symptoms.
  • You are having a heart attack and the artery needs to be opened right away.

Angioplasty is not the right choice for everyone. If you have several severe blockages, or diabetes along with blockages in more than one artery, bypass surgery may serve you better. Your cardiologist reviews your pictures and your health and talks through the choices with you.

How to Prepare

For a planned procedure, your team gives you written instructions. You will usually stop eating and drinking for several hours beforehand, and you will be told which medicines to take. You may start a blood thinner before the procedure. Tell your team about allergies to contrast dye and about kidney problems. Arrange a ride home. Most people stay overnight, so bring a few personal items.

For a heart attack, there is no time to prepare. The team moves quickly and explains what they are doing as they go, and they talk with your family.

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[Brief description of the resource]

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What to Expect

During the Procedure

You lie on a table in the cath lab, awake, with medicine through an IV to help you relax. The skin at the puncture site is numbed. The cardiologist threads a catheter to your heart, injects dye to see the blockage, and guides the balloon into place. You may feel pressure, or brief chest discomfort when the balloon inflates. Tell your team if you do. After the stent is in place, new pictures confirm that blood flows freely. The procedure usually takes one to two hours.

After the Procedure

Most people walk the same day, and many go home the next morning. Nurses check the puncture site and your heart rhythm, and you lie flat or keep your wrist still for a few hours so the site can seal.

Recovery

Most return to normal activity within about a week, and your team tells you when to lift, drive, and go back to work. You will take two blood-thinning medicines, usually aspirin plus a second medicine, often for six to twelve months. Do not stop either without talking to your cardiologist first, even if you feel well.

Your cardiologist follows you afterward. Cardiac rehabilitation helps you build strength with a team beside you, and your doctor can refer you. Metal detectors and most household equipment do not affect a stent.

Risks and Complications

Angioplasty is common and generally safe. Possible risks include bleeding or bruising at the puncture site, a reaction to dye, kidney strain, an irregular heartbeat, and the artery narrowing again over time. Rarely, a blood clot forms in the stent, which can cause a heart attack, and this is why taking your blood thinner exactly as prescribed matters. Other rare risks are stroke, damage to an artery, the need for emergency bypass surgery, and death. Your cardiologist reviews the risks that apply to you before you consent.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is angioplasty the same as bypass surgery?

No. Angioplasty opens the artery from the inside through a catheter. Bypass surgery is an operation on your chest that creates a new path for blood around a blockage.

How long does a stent last?

A stent is permanent. The artery can narrow again, and drug-coated stents lower that chance. Healthy habits and your medicines protect the artery over the years.

Does a stent mean I am cured?

A stent opens one narrowed spot. The disease that caused it continues to need care: your medicines, staying tobacco free, and a heart-healthy way of eating and moving.

Do hospitals here treat a heart attack quickly?

Yes. Baptist Health hospitals that perform emergency angioplasty meet the national benchmark for how fast the blocked artery is opened.

Will I be awake during the procedure?

Usually yes, with medicine through an IV that helps you relax, and the puncture site is numbed. Many people feel pressure but little pain, and you can tell the team at any time how you feel.

Who Provides It and Where

Angioplasty and stenting are performed at these hospitals, for planned procedures and for heart attacks:

Baptist Health Walker Hospital performs diagnostic cardiac catheterization.

Your cardiologist comes from Baptist Health Cardiovascular Associates, Heart South Cardiovascular Group, or Baptist Health Medical Group Cardiology, Anniston, and each practice schedules its own visits.

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000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
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Comprehensive Care

Related Service Lines
Heart and Vascular Care

Interventional cardiologists open a narrowed heart artery with a balloon and hold it open with a stent.

Learn More About Heart and Vascular Care
Emergency and Trauma Care

For a heart attack, emergency teams move patients straight to the cath lab for angioplasty.

Learn More About Emergency and Trauma Care
Conditions
Coronary artery disease

Coronary artery disease means the arteries that feed your heart have narrowed over time. It is common, it is treated every...

Learn More About Coronary artery disease
Heart attack

A heart attack happens when blood flow to part of the heart muscle is suddenly blocked. It is an emergency: call 911....

Learn More About Heart attack
Treatments
Coronary artery bypass surgery

Coronary artery bypass surgery uses a healthy blood vessel from another part of your body to route blood around a blocked...

Learn More About Coronary artery bypass surgery
Cardiac rehabilitation

A medically supervised program of exercise, education and support that helps you rebuild strength after a heart attack, a...

Learn More About Cardiac rehabilitation
Cardiac catheterization

Cardiac catheterization uses a thin, flexible tube guided through a blood vessel to your heart. It shows your doctor how...

Learn More About Cardiac catheterization

References

Written with the Baptist Health heart and vascular teams.

Talk With a Specialist

A first consultation or a second opinion starts with the practice that performs the procedure.

Find a Cardiologist

Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery

Coronary artery bypass surgery uses a healthy blood vessel from another part of your body to route blood around a blocked heart artery. It is a major operation that relieves chest pain and helps blood reach your heart muscle again.

Medically Reviewed Content
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Research and Evidence for This Page

This page's buttons: Find a Cardiologist. Read by someone weighing a procedure: the practice that performs it when only one does, otherwise the doctor finder for a first consultation or a second opinion.
RULINGEvery page's buttons are chosen for the reader who lands on it

A page shows zero, one or two buttons, each reasoned from the moment its reader is in. Leads go where a real decision exists (planning a birth, a diagnosis in pregnancy, a failed screen, a follow-up specialist, a pediatrician for a healthy newborn). A page read by a parent whose baby is in a NICU now offers the page's own help and the support every NICU family gets, never a sales button. No button anywhere asks anyone to choose a NICU.

  • Nobody plans a NICU stay: a baby comes to one from the delivery room or by transfer between hospitals, so a button to find one serves no reader.
  • A baby in a NICU already has its doctors at the bedside, and most families name a pediatrician before discharge, so a pediatrician button on an apnea page sells to nobody.
  • Serving the business and serving the parent are meant to agree: where no honest lead exists, help that keeps the family with Orlando Health is the business value.
  • Two slots are a ceiling, never a quota: a filler button beside a page's one real action comes off.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDRelated services are single service lines, in the designer's Services tab

Related services render as the Services tab of the designer's tabs module, as he drew them: six cards on a line page, each one service line on the ruled list, never two specialties under one name, each with one sentence on how that line joins a newborn's care.

  • The designer's service line and location frames show Services, Conditions and Treatments as three tabs, the Services tab holding six single-line cards with a sentence each.
  • The ruled list of children's service lines carries pediatric hematology and pediatric oncology, pulmonology and sleep medicine, neurology and neurosurgery as separate lines; a combined name matches no page that will exist.
  • A gate refuses any service card whose name is not a ruled line.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDThe page is set in Lufga, the typeface Orlando Health uses, at its three weights

Every page uses Lufga, loaded from orlandohealth.com, at 400, 500 and 700 only. Headings 700, the hero paragraph 500, body and buttons 400.

  • Read on orlandohealth.com, 2026-10-20: the site loads Lufga in three files, Regular 400, Medium 500 and Bold 700, and sets its headings at 700.
  • The designer's frames are set in the same face; an earlier build used a stand-in, which is why its weights read differently beside his frames.

Sources

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDButtons are the designer's slim pills, with an icon in the hero

Pills are about 2.4 times their label tall, regular weight, with no border on solid pills; the two hero pills are equal width across the paragraph, each led by an ink icon chosen from its label. The facility hero's pills carry no icon.

  • Measured across the designer's frames: every pill is 2.3 to 2.5 times its label tall, and the hero pills carry a calendar or a phone before the label.
  • A gate checks every rendered pill against these proportions.

Decided 2026-10-20

RESEARCHBreadcrumbs show a page's place in the site; a back link and the line card give the way back

A library page's breadcrumbs follow its address (Home, Health Library, Conditions, the page), because one condition page serves every line that treats it. The way back to the line comes from two other places: the first card in the page's Services tab is the line itself, always; and a visitor who arrived from a line, unit, team or program page also sees a Back link at the right of the crumb bar, naming that page.

  • Breadcrumbs should show a page's place in the site's hierarchy, never the visitor's history; history trails grow long and repetitive and do nothing for a visitor who arrives from search.
  • A page with more than one parent shows one canonical trail for everyone, which keeps the page's signal to search engines consistent.
  • A separate link back to where the visitor came from is a common pattern (a store's Back to Results) and leaves the canonical trail untouched.
  • Tested in the demo: a parent reading condition pages could not find the way back to the Neonatal Care page.

Sources

Decided 2026-10-21

If your cardiologist has said you may need bypass surgery, you probably have a lot of questions and some worry. Both are normal. Coronary artery bypass grafting, often called CABG (said like "cabbage"), is one of the most common and most studied heart operations. Your team plans it with you, and your family is welcome in the conversation.

Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, performs bypass surgery at Brookwood and Princeton hospitals. Your cardiologist and your surgeon work together before the operation, and your cardiologist follows you afterward.

Bypass surgery is planned over several visits, unless it is needed urgently after a heart attack. You will meet your surgeon, go over your heart pictures together, and talk through why bypass fits your arteries better than a stent. This page covers why your heart team may recommend it, how to get ready, what the hospital stay and the weeks at home look like, and the risks to weigh.

What Is Bypass Surgery?

Coronary artery disease narrows the arteries that feed your heart muscle. In bypass surgery, a surgeon takes a healthy blood vessel from your chest wall, your leg, or your arm and attaches it above and below the blockage. Blood then travels through this new route, called a graft, around the narrowed spot. One operation can bypass one blockage or several.

Most bypass operations use a heart-lung machine, which takes over the work of your heart and lungs while the surgeon sews the grafts onto a heart that is still. Some operations are done on a beating heart without the machine, which is called off-pump bypass. Baptist Health offers both. Your surgeon recommends the approach that suits your heart and your health.

Why Bypass Surgery Is Performed

Bypass surgery builds a new route for blood around blocked coronary arteries, using a healthy blood vessel from your chest, arm or leg. It eases chest pain and breathlessness, and for some people with severe disease it helps the heart work better over the long term.

Who Is a Candidate

Your heart team may recommend bypass surgery when:

  • You have severe blockages in several coronary arteries.
  • You have a blockage in the left main artery, which supplies a large share of your heart muscle.
  • You have diabetes and blockages in more than one artery.
  • A stent is not a good fit for the shape or location of your blockages, or an earlier stent has not worked.
  • You need another heart operation at the same time, such as a valve repair.

Bypass and stents are two ways to restore blood flow, and the right one depends on your arteries and your overall health. A cardiac catheterization shows your surgeon and cardiologist what they need to see to make this decision with you.

How to Prepare

You will have blood tests, a chest X-ray, an electrocardiogram, and often an echocardiogram. Your team will tell you which medicines to take or stop, especially blood thinners, and when to stop eating and drinking. If you smoke, stopping before surgery helps your lungs and your healing, and your team can help. Plan help at home for the first weeks, and ask a family member to learn the plan with you. Chaplains are available at Baptist Health hospitals for you and your family if you would like to talk or pray.

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[Brief description of the resource]

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What to Expect

During the Procedure

You receive general anesthesia and sleep through the operation. The surgeon opens your chest through the breastbone, takes the graft vessels, and attaches them to your coronary arteries. Surgery usually takes three to six hours. Your family waits in a surgical waiting area, and a member of the team updates them.

After the Procedure

You wake in the cardiac intensive care unit with a breathing tube, which is usually removed within hours. You also have tubes that drain fluid from around your heart, and nurses watch you closely. You stay in the hospital for several days.

Recovery

Full recovery takes about four to twelve weeks, depending on your health and your operation. You will have chest soreness and tiredness, and walking a little farther each day helps. Your breastbone needs about six to eight weeks to heal, so you will avoid heavy lifting, pushing, and pulling, and your team shows you how to protect your chest when you cough or get up from a chair. Most people can drive after four to six weeks, and return to desk work in about the same time. Jobs that need heavy lifting may take two to three months. Your surgeon sets your timeline.

Cardiac rehabilitation is an important part of recovery. At Baptist Health, the program at Shelby and Princeton is 36 sessions, and it typically starts about a month after your surgeon and cardiologist clear you. Calhoun's program, in Anniston, runs in three phases and begins while you are still in the hospital.

Risks and Complications

Bypass surgery is a major operation, and your surgeon discusses your own risks with you. They include bleeding, infection in the chest incision, an irregular heartbeat such as atrial fibrillation (common and usually temporary), kidney problems, stroke, a heart attack, short-term trouble with memory or focus, and death. Grafts can narrow over time, which is why medicine and healthy habits matter after surgery.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long do bypass grafts last?

A graft from the chest wall often lasts 20 years or more, and a graft from the leg commonly lasts 10 to 15 years. Your surgeon chooses grafts for your situation. Taking your medicines, staying tobacco free, and keeping regular visits help protect them.

What is off-pump bypass surgery?

The surgeon works on a beating heart without the heart-lung machine. It suits some patients. Ask your surgeon whether it is an option for you.

Will I feel better after surgery?

Many people have less chest pain and more energy once blood reaches their heart muscle again, often within weeks. Surgery treats the blockage, and your medicines and habits protect the rest of your arteries.

When should I call after I go home?

Call your surgeon's office for fever, redness or drainage from the incision, a clicking or shifting breastbone, or swelling in a leg. Call 911 for chest pain, trouble breathing, or fainting.

Can bypass surgery be done more than once?

Yes. If grafts narrow years later, a repeat operation is possible, though it carries more risk than the first, and many people are treated instead with a stent placed in the graft or a native artery. Your heart team weighs the options with you.

Who Provides It and Where

Bypass surgery is performed at:

The cardiothoracic surgery office is at 2018 Brookwood Medical Center Drive, Medical Building C, Suite 215, Birmingham, AL 35209.

Your cardiologist refers you and follows your care before and after. Start with Baptist Health Cardiovascular Associates, Heart South Cardiovascular Group, or Baptist Health Medical Group Cardiology, Anniston, each of which schedules its own appointments.

Type a city or zip code
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Type a doctor's first or last name
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[n] doctors foundMany doctors have multiple practice locations. View the doctor's profile for a complete list of their locationsSort By: A to Z
[Doctor Name 1], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
[Doctor Name 2], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
[Doctor Name 3], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
123›

Comprehensive Care

Related Service Lines
Heart and Vascular Care

Cardiac surgeons and cardiologists decide together when bypass surgery is the better choice than a stent.

Learn More About Heart and Vascular Care
Endocrinology and Diabetes

Diabetes with blockages in several arteries is one common reason bypass is recommended.

Learn More About Endocrinology and Diabetes
Conditions
Coronary artery disease

Coronary artery disease means the arteries that feed your heart have narrowed over time. It is common, it is treated every...

Learn More About Coronary artery disease
Heart attack

A heart attack happens when blood flow to part of the heart muscle is suddenly blocked. It is an emergency: call 911....

Learn More About Heart attack
Treatments
Coronary angioplasty and stents

Coronary angioplasty opens a narrowed or blocked heart artery with a tiny balloon, and a stent, a small mesh tube, keeps it...

Learn More About Coronary angioplasty and stents
Cardiac catheterization

Cardiac catheterization uses a thin, flexible tube guided through a blood vessel to your heart. It shows your doctor how...

Learn More About Cardiac catheterization
Echocardiogram

A painless ultrasound of your heart. Sound waves make a moving picture that shows the size and thickness of your heart, how...

Learn More About Echocardiogram
Cardiac rehabilitation

A medically supervised program of exercise, education and support that helps you rebuild strength after a heart attack, a...

Learn More About Cardiac rehabilitation

References

Written with the Baptist Health heart and vascular teams.

Talk With a Specialist

A first consultation or a second opinion starts with the practice that performs the procedure.

Find a Cardiologist

Cardiac Catheter Ablation

Cardiac catheter ablation treats an abnormal heart rhythm from inside the heart. Thin tubes guided through a vein find the tiny area sending faulty signals, and energy treats it. It can lessen or end palpitations and other symptoms of an arrhythmia.

Medically Reviewed Content
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Research and Evidence for This Page

This page's buttons: Find a Cardiologist. Read by someone weighing a procedure: the practice that performs it when only one does, otherwise the doctor finder for a first consultation or a second opinion.
RULINGEvery page's buttons are chosen for the reader who lands on it

A page shows zero, one or two buttons, each reasoned from the moment its reader is in. Leads go where a real decision exists (planning a birth, a diagnosis in pregnancy, a failed screen, a follow-up specialist, a pediatrician for a healthy newborn). A page read by a parent whose baby is in a NICU now offers the page's own help and the support every NICU family gets, never a sales button. No button anywhere asks anyone to choose a NICU.

  • Nobody plans a NICU stay: a baby comes to one from the delivery room or by transfer between hospitals, so a button to find one serves no reader.
  • A baby in a NICU already has its doctors at the bedside, and most families name a pediatrician before discharge, so a pediatrician button on an apnea page sells to nobody.
  • Serving the business and serving the parent are meant to agree: where no honest lead exists, help that keeps the family with Orlando Health is the business value.
  • Two slots are a ceiling, never a quota: a filler button beside a page's one real action comes off.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDRelated services are single service lines, in the designer's Services tab

Related services render as the Services tab of the designer's tabs module, as he drew them: six cards on a line page, each one service line on the ruled list, never two specialties under one name, each with one sentence on how that line joins a newborn's care.

  • The designer's service line and location frames show Services, Conditions and Treatments as three tabs, the Services tab holding six single-line cards with a sentence each.
  • The ruled list of children's service lines carries pediatric hematology and pediatric oncology, pulmonology and sleep medicine, neurology and neurosurgery as separate lines; a combined name matches no page that will exist.
  • A gate refuses any service card whose name is not a ruled line.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDThe page is set in Lufga, the typeface Orlando Health uses, at its three weights

Every page uses Lufga, loaded from orlandohealth.com, at 400, 500 and 700 only. Headings 700, the hero paragraph 500, body and buttons 400.

  • Read on orlandohealth.com, 2026-10-20: the site loads Lufga in three files, Regular 400, Medium 500 and Bold 700, and sets its headings at 700.
  • The designer's frames are set in the same face; an earlier build used a stand-in, which is why its weights read differently beside his frames.

Sources

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDButtons are the designer's slim pills, with an icon in the hero

Pills are about 2.4 times their label tall, regular weight, with no border on solid pills; the two hero pills are equal width across the paragraph, each led by an ink icon chosen from its label. The facility hero's pills carry no icon.

  • Measured across the designer's frames: every pill is 2.3 to 2.5 times its label tall, and the hero pills carry a calendar or a phone before the label.
  • A gate checks every rendered pill against these proportions.

Decided 2026-10-20

RESEARCHBreadcrumbs show a page's place in the site; a back link and the line card give the way back

A library page's breadcrumbs follow its address (Home, Health Library, Conditions, the page), because one condition page serves every line that treats it. The way back to the line comes from two other places: the first card in the page's Services tab is the line itself, always; and a visitor who arrived from a line, unit, team or program page also sees a Back link at the right of the crumb bar, naming that page.

  • Breadcrumbs should show a page's place in the site's hierarchy, never the visitor's history; history trails grow long and repetitive and do nothing for a visitor who arrives from search.
  • A page with more than one parent shows one canonical trail for everyone, which keeps the page's signal to search engines consistent.
  • A separate link back to where the visitor came from is a common pattern (a store's Back to Results) and leaves the canonical trail untouched.
  • Tested in the demo: a parent reading condition pages could not find the way back to the Neonatal Care page.

Sources

Decided 2026-10-21

If your heart races, flutters, or skips, and medicine has not controlled it, your cardiologist may suggest an ablation. It is a treatment for the heart's electrical system, and for many people it ends or lessens the symptoms. Many rhythm problems, such as supraventricular tachycardia, atrial flutter, and atrial fibrillation, can be treated this way.

Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, has electrophysiologists, heart doctors who specialize in rhythm, who perform ablation in hospital electrophysiology labs in Alabama. They explain what they find and what they plan, and they follow you afterward.

An ablation is planned well ahead of time. You meet your electrophysiologist first, go over your rhythm tests together, and talk through what the procedure can do for your type of arrhythmia. This page covers why your doctor may recommend it, how to get ready, what the day and the weeks after look like, and the risks to weigh.

What Is Cardiac Catheter Ablation?

Your heartbeat is set by electrical signals that travel along set paths. In an arrhythmia, a small area of heart tissue sends extra or misdirected signals. In catheter ablation, an electrophysiologist guides thin, flexible tubes called catheters through a vein, usually in the groin, into the heart. The doctor first studies your heart's signals, in what is called an electrophysiology (EP) study, to find where the problem starts. A 3D mapping system builds a picture of the electrical pattern.

Then the doctor uses energy through the catheter to treat that small spot so it stops sending faulty signals. Baptist Health's electrophysiologists use heat (radiofrequency), cold (cryoablation), and pulsed field ablation, which uses short bursts of electrical energy. They choose among them for your type of arrhythmia.

Why Cardiac Catheter Ablation Is Performed

The goal is to cure or lessen the arrhythmia, prevent its complications, and improve your quality of life. Your doctor reviews your tests, such as an EKG, an echocardiogram, and a Holter monitor, before recommending it.

Who Is a Candidate

Your doctor may recommend ablation when:

  • A fast rhythm such as SVT, atrial flutter, or ventricular tachycardia causes symptoms or is dangerous.
  • You have atrial fibrillation or another arrhythmia that medicines have not controlled, or you prefer to avoid long-term medicine.
  • You have fainting or palpitations, and your doctor needs to find the exact source.

How to Prepare

Your team gives you written instructions. In general:

  • Do not eat or drink after the time you are given.
  • Keep taking your blood thinner exactly as prescribed unless your doctor tells you otherwise. Missing doses before an AFib ablation can raise the risk of a stroke.
  • Ask about your other heart medicines, since some are stopped for a few days.
  • You may have an ultrasound or CT scan beforehand to check for clots in the heart.
  • Arrange a ride home and an adult to stay with you that night.
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What to Expect

During the Procedure

Ablation happens in an electrophysiology lab with a team of doctors, nurses, and technologists. You receive sedation or general anesthesia, depending on your procedure, so you are relaxed or asleep. The doctor numbs the groin, places the catheters, maps your heart's signals, and treats the problem area. Time varies with your arrhythmia, from about two hours to six.

After the Procedure

Afterward you rest flat for a few hours while the entry spot heals. Most people stay overnight, and some go home the same day.

Recovery

Most people feel tired for a few days and return to normal activity within one to two weeks. You will avoid heavy lifting for a short time, as your doctor directs. In the first weeks, you may notice skipped or fast beats as the heart heals, and that does not always mean the ablation failed. Tell your team about them. Your electrophysiologist schedules a follow-up visit to see how your rhythm is doing and whether you need more treatment.

Call 911 for chest pain, sudden shortness of breath, fainting, signs of a stroke such as face drooping, arm weakness or trouble speaking, bleeding where the catheters went in that does not stop after ten minutes of firm pressure, a lump there that is growing fast, or a leg that turns cold, pale or numb. Call your care team the same day for a small amount of oozing or bruising that is not growing, redness or drainage at the site, a fever, or a fast or irregular heartbeat that does not settle.

Risks and Complications

Ablation is a common, well-studied procedure, and serious problems are uncommon. Possible risks include bleeding or bruising where the catheters went in; fluid around the heart; a blood clot or stroke; damage to a blood vessel or to a nearby structure such as the esophagus after AFib ablation; a slow heartbeat that needs a pacemaker; and an arrhythmia that returns. Your doctor explains the risks for your type of ablation and for your health.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is ablation a cure for atrial fibrillation?

It lessens or ends episodes in many people, and some stop taking rhythm medicine. AFib can come back, particularly when it has lasted a long time, and some people need a second procedure. Your electrophysiologist talks with you about what to expect for your type of AFib.

Do I still need a blood thinner after an AFib ablation?

Usually yes, for at least a couple of months while the heart heals, and then your doctor decides based on your stroke risk, whatever your symptoms. Do not stop it without asking. If you cannot take a blood thinner long term, ask about left atrial appendage closure.

How is ablation different from cardioversion?

Cardioversion uses a shock to reset the rhythm once. Ablation treats the source of the rhythm problem so it is less likely to return.

Will it hurt?

You are sedated or asleep. Afterward you may have some soreness at the groin and, after some AFib ablations, mild chest discomfort for a few days. Tell your team if pain is worse than you expected.

Will I stay in the hospital overnight?

Most people stay one night so the team can watch the heart rhythm and the entry site, and some go home the same day. Your electrophysiologist tells you which to plan for, based on your type of ablation and your health.

Who Provides It and Where

Ablation is performed in hospital electrophysiology labs at:

Before and after the procedure, you see your electrophysiologist in the practice's office:

Each practice schedules its own appointments. Chaplains are available at our hospitals for you and your family, if that would help.

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[n] doctors foundMany doctors have multiple practice locations. View the doctor's profile for a complete list of their locationsSort By: A to Z
[Doctor Name 1], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
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000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
[Doctor Name 2], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
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Comprehensive Care

Related Service Lines
Heart and Vascular Care

Electrophysiologists perform ablation to stop the faulty signals that cause a rhythm problem.

Learn More About Heart and Vascular Care
Sleep Medicine

Treating sleep apnea before and after ablation helps a regular rhythm hold.

Learn More About Sleep Medicine
Conditions
Atrial fibrillation

Atrial fibrillation, or AFib, is the most common heart rhythm problem: the upper chambers beat in a fast, irregular pattern....

Learn More About Atrial fibrillation
Heart arrhythmia (tachycardia and bradycardia)

A heart arrhythmia is a problem with the heart's electrical signals, so the heart beats too fast, too slow or unevenly. Many...

Learn More About Heart arrhythmia (tachycardia and bradycardia)
Treatments
Echocardiogram

A painless ultrasound of your heart. Sound waves make a moving picture that shows the size and thickness of your heart, how...

Learn More About Echocardiogram
Holter monitor

A small, wearable heart recorder that tracks your heart's rhythm for a day or two while you go about your normal day. It...

Learn More About Holter monitor
Pacemaker implantation

A pacemaker is a small device placed under the skin near your collarbone. It senses a heartbeat that is too slow or pauses,...

Learn More About Pacemaker implantation
Left atrial appendage closure

Left atrial appendage closure seals a small pouch in the heart where clots form in atrial fibrillation, to lower stroke...

Learn More About Left atrial appendage closure
Cardioversion

Cardioversion resets a heart that is beating too fast or out of rhythm, most often in atrial fibrillation. You are given...

Learn More About Cardioversion
Implantable cardioverter-defibrillator placement

An implantable cardioverter-defibrillator, or ICD, is a small device placed under the skin. It watches your heart rhythm...

Learn More About Implantable cardioverter-defibrillator placement

References

Written with the Baptist Health heart and vascular teams.

Talk With a Specialist

A first consultation or a second opinion starts with the practice that performs the procedure.

Find a Cardiologist

Pacemaker Implantation

A pacemaker is a small device placed under the skin near your collarbone. It senses a heartbeat that is too slow or pauses, and sends a small electrical signal that keeps your heart beating at a regular rate.

Medically Reviewed Content
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Research and Evidence for This Page

This page's buttons: Find a Cardiologist. Read by someone weighing a procedure: the practice that performs it when only one does, otherwise the doctor finder for a first consultation or a second opinion.
RULINGEvery page's buttons are chosen for the reader who lands on it

A page shows zero, one or two buttons, each reasoned from the moment its reader is in. Leads go where a real decision exists (planning a birth, a diagnosis in pregnancy, a failed screen, a follow-up specialist, a pediatrician for a healthy newborn). A page read by a parent whose baby is in a NICU now offers the page's own help and the support every NICU family gets, never a sales button. No button anywhere asks anyone to choose a NICU.

  • Nobody plans a NICU stay: a baby comes to one from the delivery room or by transfer between hospitals, so a button to find one serves no reader.
  • A baby in a NICU already has its doctors at the bedside, and most families name a pediatrician before discharge, so a pediatrician button on an apnea page sells to nobody.
  • Serving the business and serving the parent are meant to agree: where no honest lead exists, help that keeps the family with Orlando Health is the business value.
  • Two slots are a ceiling, never a quota: a filler button beside a page's one real action comes off.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDRelated services are single service lines, in the designer's Services tab

Related services render as the Services tab of the designer's tabs module, as he drew them: six cards on a line page, each one service line on the ruled list, never two specialties under one name, each with one sentence on how that line joins a newborn's care.

  • The designer's service line and location frames show Services, Conditions and Treatments as three tabs, the Services tab holding six single-line cards with a sentence each.
  • The ruled list of children's service lines carries pediatric hematology and pediatric oncology, pulmonology and sleep medicine, neurology and neurosurgery as separate lines; a combined name matches no page that will exist.
  • A gate refuses any service card whose name is not a ruled line.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDThe page is set in Lufga, the typeface Orlando Health uses, at its three weights

Every page uses Lufga, loaded from orlandohealth.com, at 400, 500 and 700 only. Headings 700, the hero paragraph 500, body and buttons 400.

  • Read on orlandohealth.com, 2026-10-20: the site loads Lufga in three files, Regular 400, Medium 500 and Bold 700, and sets its headings at 700.
  • The designer's frames are set in the same face; an earlier build used a stand-in, which is why its weights read differently beside his frames.

Sources

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDButtons are the designer's slim pills, with an icon in the hero

Pills are about 2.4 times their label tall, regular weight, with no border on solid pills; the two hero pills are equal width across the paragraph, each led by an ink icon chosen from its label. The facility hero's pills carry no icon.

  • Measured across the designer's frames: every pill is 2.3 to 2.5 times its label tall, and the hero pills carry a calendar or a phone before the label.
  • A gate checks every rendered pill against these proportions.

Decided 2026-10-20

RESEARCHBreadcrumbs show a page's place in the site; a back link and the line card give the way back

A library page's breadcrumbs follow its address (Home, Health Library, Conditions, the page), because one condition page serves every line that treats it. The way back to the line comes from two other places: the first card in the page's Services tab is the line itself, always; and a visitor who arrived from a line, unit, team or program page also sees a Back link at the right of the crumb bar, naming that page.

  • Breadcrumbs should show a page's place in the site's hierarchy, never the visitor's history; history trails grow long and repetitive and do nothing for a visitor who arrives from search.
  • A page with more than one parent shows one canonical trail for everyone, which keeps the page's signal to search engines consistent.
  • A separate link back to where the visitor came from is a common pattern (a store's Back to Results) and leaves the canonical trail untouched.
  • Tested in the demo: a parent reading condition pages could not find the way back to the Neonatal Care page.

Sources

Decided 2026-10-21

If your heart beats too slowly, or pauses, you may feel tired, dizzy, short of breath, or faint. A pacemaker treats that cause directly. Implanting one is a common procedure, usually done in about one to two hours, and many people notice more energy in the days and weeks after.

Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, implants pacemakers in Alabama hospital electrophysiology labs and follows each device for years in its practice offices. This page explains how a pacemaker works and what to expect.

A pacemaker is usually planned after tests have shown that a slow or paused heartbeat explains your symptoms. You will meet the doctor who will implant it, go over those tests together and talk through the type of device that fits you. This page also covers why your doctor may recommend one, how to get ready, what the implant day and the weeks after look like, the risks to weigh, and how the device is checked for years afterward.

What Is a Pacemaker?

A pacemaker has two main parts. The generator is a small metal case, about the size of a large coin, that holds a battery and a tiny computer. The leads are thin wires that run from the generator through a vein to your heart. The device watches your heartbeat. When your heart beats too slowly or skips, it sends a small electrical pulse that you do not feel. When your own heartbeat is fine, it waits and only watches.

There are several types. A single-chamber pacemaker has one lead, and a dual-chamber pacemaker has two. A biventricular device, also called cardiac resynchronization therapy, helps both lower chambers beat together for some people with heart failure. A leadless pacemaker is a small capsule placed directly inside the heart through a vein in the groin, with no wires and no chest pocket. Baptist Health offers leadless pacemakers for people who are good candidates.

If your doctor is also concerned about dangerous fast rhythms, you may need an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator instead, which can also pace.

Why Pacemaker Implantation Is Performed

A pacemaker is placed to keep your heart from beating too slowly or pausing, so your body gets the blood it needs and symptoms such as dizziness, fainting and tiredness ease.

Who Is a Candidate

Your doctor may recommend a pacemaker if you have:

  • A heart rate that is too slow (bradycardia), with symptoms such as fainting, dizziness, or tiredness
  • Heart block, where the signal between the upper and lower chambers is delayed or blocked
  • Sick sinus syndrome, where the heart's natural pacemaker works unevenly
  • A slow heartbeat after another treatment, such as ablation or a medicine you need
  • Heart failure with chambers that beat out of step, if a biventricular device fits

Tests such as an EKG, a Holter monitor, or an implantable loop recorder help show the cause of your symptoms. Read more about arrhythmias.

How to Prepare

Your care team gives you instructions. Expect to stop eating and drinking after a set time, and to be told which medicines to take, especially blood thinners. Wash with the soap they give you if asked. You will receive antibiotics through an IV to lower the chance of infection. Arrange a ride home.

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What to Expect

During the Procedure

You receive local anesthesia, so the chest is numb, and medicine to help you relax. The doctor makes a small cut below your collarbone, guides the leads through a vein into your heart using X-ray pictures, and tests that they work well. The generator is placed in a small pocket under the skin and the cut is closed. A leadless device goes in through the groin instead.

After the Procedure

Most implants take one to two hours, and most people stay overnight. Recovery is straightforward for most people.

Recovery

Keep the area clean and dry. For a few weeks, avoid lifting your arm above your shoulder on the side of the device and avoid heavy lifting, so the leads stay in place while they heal. Your doctor tells you when you can drive, often within one to two weeks. A leadless pacemaker has fewer arm limits.

You receive a device identification card for your wallet. Your device is checked after the first weeks and then at regular visits, and it can also be monitored from home. Baptist Health runs remote monitoring through a heart lab at the Cardiovascular Associates main office, so your team can see your data between visits.

Battery life varies with the device and how often it paces, commonly from about 5 to 15 years. When the battery runs low, your doctor sees it at a routine check, and replacing the generator is a shorter procedure than the first.

Risks and Complications

Pacemaker implantation is common and safe for most people. Possible risks include bleeding or bruising in the pocket, infection, a lead that moves or needs adjusting, a collapsed lung (rare), and damage to the heart or a vessel (rare). A pacemaker also needs a new battery from time to time. Your doctor reviews the risks that apply to you.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will I feel the pacemaker working?

Most people do not feel the pulses. You may feel the device under your skin at first.

Can I use a cell phone, microwave, or go through airport security?

Yes. Keep your cell phone at least 6 inches from the device and use it on the opposite ear. Household appliances are safe. Show your device card at airport security, and walk through the detector at a normal pace without lingering. Avoid strong magnets and electrical fields, and do not lean over a running car engine. Many newer devices allow MRI under set conditions. Ask your device team before any MRI.

Can I exercise?

Yes, once you are healed, and exercise often becomes easier because your heart rate responds to what you ask of it. Ask your doctor which activities are right for you.

When should I call my doctor?

Call for fever, redness or swelling at the incision, fainting, or a return of the symptoms you had before. Call 911 for chest pain, trouble breathing, or fainting that does not pass quickly.

How often is a pacemaker checked?

Your device is checked in the weeks after the implant and then at regular visits, and most devices can also send their data from home between visits, so your team sees how the battery and the leads are doing without an extra trip.

Who Provides It and Where

Pacemakers are implanted at these hospitals:

Implants are done by electrophysiologists and by a general cardiologist trained in device implantation. Follow-up and device checks happen in the practice offices:

Each practice schedules its own appointments.

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[n] doctors foundMany doctors have multiple practice locations. View the doctor's profile for a complete list of their locationsSort By: A to Z
[Doctor Name 1], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
[Doctor Name 2], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
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Comprehensive Care

Related Service Lines
Heart and Vascular Care

Cardiologists place and follow pacemakers for a heartbeat that is too slow or pauses.

Learn More About Heart and Vascular Care
Neuroscience

Fainting has many causes, and neurologists and cardiologists work together to find a slow heartbeat.

Learn More About Neuroscience
Conditions
Heart failure

Heart failure means the heart pumps with less force than your body needs. It does not mean the heart has stopped. Baptist...

Learn More About Heart failure
Atrial fibrillation

Atrial fibrillation, or AFib, is the most common heart rhythm problem: the upper chambers beat in a fast, irregular pattern....

Learn More About Atrial fibrillation
Heart arrhythmia (tachycardia and bradycardia)

A heart arrhythmia is a problem with the heart's electrical signals, so the heart beats too fast, too slow or unevenly. Many...

Learn More About Heart arrhythmia (tachycardia and bradycardia)
Treatments
Implantable cardioverter-defibrillator placement

An implantable cardioverter-defibrillator, or ICD, is a small device placed under the skin. It watches your heart rhythm...

Learn More About Implantable cardioverter-defibrillator placement
Cardiac catheter ablation

Cardiac catheter ablation treats an abnormal heart rhythm from inside the heart. Thin tubes guided through a vein find the...

Learn More About Cardiac catheter ablation
Holter monitor

A small, wearable heart recorder that tracks your heart's rhythm for a day or two while you go about your normal day. It...

Learn More About Holter monitor
Implantable cardiac loop recorder placement

An implantable loop recorder is a very small device placed just under the skin of your chest. It records your heart rhythm...

Learn More About Implantable cardiac loop recorder placement
Cardioversion

Cardioversion resets a heart that is beating too fast or out of rhythm, most often in atrial fibrillation. You are given...

Learn More About Cardioversion

References

Written with the Baptist Health heart and vascular teams.

Talk With a Specialist

A first consultation or a second opinion starts with the practice that performs the procedure.

Find a Cardiologist

Implantable Cardioverter-defibrillator Placement

An implantable cardioverter-defibrillator, or ICD, is a small device placed under the skin. It watches your heart rhythm around the clock and treats a dangerously fast rhythm, with pacing or a shock, to protect you from sudden cardiac arrest.

Medically Reviewed Content
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Research and Evidence for This Page

This page's buttons: Find a Cardiologist. Read by someone weighing a procedure: the practice that performs it when only one does, otherwise the doctor finder for a first consultation or a second opinion.
RULINGEvery page's buttons are chosen for the reader who lands on it

A page shows zero, one or two buttons, each reasoned from the moment its reader is in. Leads go where a real decision exists (planning a birth, a diagnosis in pregnancy, a failed screen, a follow-up specialist, a pediatrician for a healthy newborn). A page read by a parent whose baby is in a NICU now offers the page's own help and the support every NICU family gets, never a sales button. No button anywhere asks anyone to choose a NICU.

  • Nobody plans a NICU stay: a baby comes to one from the delivery room or by transfer between hospitals, so a button to find one serves no reader.
  • A baby in a NICU already has its doctors at the bedside, and most families name a pediatrician before discharge, so a pediatrician button on an apnea page sells to nobody.
  • Serving the business and serving the parent are meant to agree: where no honest lead exists, help that keeps the family with Orlando Health is the business value.
  • Two slots are a ceiling, never a quota: a filler button beside a page's one real action comes off.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDRelated services are single service lines, in the designer's Services tab

Related services render as the Services tab of the designer's tabs module, as he drew them: six cards on a line page, each one service line on the ruled list, never two specialties under one name, each with one sentence on how that line joins a newborn's care.

  • The designer's service line and location frames show Services, Conditions and Treatments as three tabs, the Services tab holding six single-line cards with a sentence each.
  • The ruled list of children's service lines carries pediatric hematology and pediatric oncology, pulmonology and sleep medicine, neurology and neurosurgery as separate lines; a combined name matches no page that will exist.
  • A gate refuses any service card whose name is not a ruled line.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDThe page is set in Lufga, the typeface Orlando Health uses, at its three weights

Every page uses Lufga, loaded from orlandohealth.com, at 400, 500 and 700 only. Headings 700, the hero paragraph 500, body and buttons 400.

  • Read on orlandohealth.com, 2026-10-20: the site loads Lufga in three files, Regular 400, Medium 500 and Bold 700, and sets its headings at 700.
  • The designer's frames are set in the same face; an earlier build used a stand-in, which is why its weights read differently beside his frames.

Sources

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDButtons are the designer's slim pills, with an icon in the hero

Pills are about 2.4 times their label tall, regular weight, with no border on solid pills; the two hero pills are equal width across the paragraph, each led by an ink icon chosen from its label. The facility hero's pills carry no icon.

  • Measured across the designer's frames: every pill is 2.3 to 2.5 times its label tall, and the hero pills carry a calendar or a phone before the label.
  • A gate checks every rendered pill against these proportions.

Decided 2026-10-20

RESEARCHBreadcrumbs show a page's place in the site; a back link and the line card give the way back

A library page's breadcrumbs follow its address (Home, Health Library, Conditions, the page), because one condition page serves every line that treats it. The way back to the line comes from two other places: the first card in the page's Services tab is the line itself, always; and a visitor who arrived from a line, unit, team or program page also sees a Back link at the right of the crumb bar, naming that page.

  • Breadcrumbs should show a page's place in the site's hierarchy, never the visitor's history; history trails grow long and repetitive and do nothing for a visitor who arrives from search.
  • A page with more than one parent shows one canonical trail for everyone, which keeps the page's signal to search engines consistent.
  • A separate link back to where the visitor came from is a common pattern (a store's Back to Results) and leaves the canonical trail untouched.
  • Tested in the demo: a parent reading condition pages could not find the way back to the Neonatal Care page.

Sources

Decided 2026-10-21

If your cardiologist has recommended an ICD, you may be wondering what it means for your life, and what it is like to live with a device that can deliver a shock. Many people feel better knowing something is watching their heart at every moment. An ICD does not prevent a dangerous rhythm. It recognizes one in seconds and treats it, and that can save a life.

Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, implants ICDs in hospital electrophysiology labs in Alabama and follows each device and each person for years. Your team will answer your questions, and your family is welcome to ask theirs.

An ICD is usually planned ahead, after your cardiologist and the doctor who will implant it review your heart's pumping strength and rhythm tests with you. This page covers why your doctor may recommend one, how to get ready, what the implant day and the weeks after look like, the risks to weigh, and what living with the device involves.

What Is an ICD?

An ICD looks like a pacemaker. It is a small case, placed under the skin near the collarbone, that holds a battery and a computer, connected to one or more thin wires called leads that reach your heart. It does what a pacemaker does, and one thing more. If your heart goes into ventricular tachycardia, a dangerously fast rhythm, it often first tries to correct it with a quick series of small pulses, which most people do not feel. If that does not work, or if the rhythm is ventricular fibrillation, it delivers a shock to reset the rhythm.

There are a few types. A standard ICD has leads inside the heart. A device that also helps the lower chambers beat together is called a CRT-D. A subcutaneous ICD (S-ICD) is placed under the skin along the left side of your chest, with a lead that stays outside the heart and veins. Your electrophysiologist helps you choose the type that suits you.

Why ICD Placement Is Performed

An ICD is placed to protect you from sudden cardiac arrest. It watches every heartbeat and, if a dangerously fast rhythm starts, treats it within seconds with fast pacing or a shock.

Who Is a Candidate

Your doctor may recommend an ICD if you:

  • Have survived a cardiac arrest or a dangerous fast rhythm
  • Have weakened heart muscle, from a past heart attack or from heart failure, that puts you at higher risk of a dangerous rhythm
  • Have an inherited heart rhythm condition that raises the risk of sudden cardiac arrest
  • Have had fainting caused by a fast rhythm

Some people receive an ICD because they have already had a dangerous rhythm. Others receive one as protection because their heart muscle is weak, even though they have not had one. Your doctor explains which applies to you. An ICD does not treat the underlying condition, so you continue your medicines and care. See also arrhythmias.

How to Prepare

Your team gives you instructions. You will stop eating and drinking after a set time, and take or hold certain medicines, especially blood thinners, as directed. You receive antibiotics through an IV to lower the chance of infection. Arrange a ride home and help for the first few days. This is a good time to ask every question you have, including what to do if the device gives you a shock.

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What to Expect

During the Procedure

You receive local anesthesia and medicine to help you relax, or in some cases general anesthesia. The doctor makes a small cut below your collarbone, guides the lead or leads into your heart with X-ray pictures, and checks that the device senses and paces correctly. Sometimes the doctor briefly tests the device by starting a fast rhythm while you are asleep. The device goes in a pocket under the skin. An S-ICD goes in through cuts along the chest and under the arm, and the lead does not enter the heart.

After the Procedure

Most implants take one to three hours, and most people stay overnight. Keep the area clean and dry.

Recovery

For a few weeks, avoid raising your arm above your shoulder on the device side and avoid heavy lifting. Your doctor will tell you when you can drive. The timing depends on why you received the ICD, and it may be longer if you had a dangerous rhythm. Most people return to daily activities and to work.

Your device is checked at regular visits and can also be monitored from home, so your team can review your data between visits. An ICD battery usually lasts about five to ten years, and the generator is replaced in a shorter procedure when it runs low.

Some people feel anxious after an ICD, and that is common. Talk with your team about it. Chaplains are available at our hospitals for you and your family if you would like spiritual support.

Risks and Complications

Risks are similar to a pacemaker: bleeding or bruising in the pocket, infection, a lead that moves, a collapsed lung (rare), and damage to the heart or a vessel (rare). An ICD also has two risks of its own. It can give a shock that was not needed, for example when it mistakes a fast, normal heartbeat for a dangerous one. And a lead can wear or break over the years. Your doctor reviews the risks for you.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does a shock feel like?

Most people describe a sudden hard thump or kick in the chest. It is brief. It can be startling and uncomfortable. Your team reviews what to expect and what to do.

What should I do if my ICD gives a shock?

If you feel fine afterward, take a seat and call your cardiologist's office the same day. Call 911 if you get more than one shock in a day, if you have chest pain, trouble breathing, or confusion after a shock, or if you pass out. Ask someone nearby to call.

Can I use electronics and travel?

Yes. Keep a cell phone at least 6 inches from the device and use it on the opposite ear. Show your device card at airport security. Avoid strong magnets and electrical fields, and ask your device team before any MRI.

Can I be active?

Most people can. Your doctor tells you which activities are right for you, and cardiac rehabilitation may be an option if you have heart failure.

How is an ICD different from a pacemaker?

A pacemaker keeps the heart from beating too slowly. An ICD watches for a dangerously fast rhythm and treats it with fast pacing or a shock, and most ICDs can also pace a slow heartbeat. Your doctor explains which device fits your heart.

Who Provides It and Where

ICDs are implanted at these hospitals:

Implants are done by electrophysiologists and by a general cardiologist trained in device implantation. You see your cardiologist and device team in the practice offices:

Each practice schedules its own appointments.

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Comprehensive Care

Related Service Lines
Heart and Vascular Care

Cardiologists implant and check ICDs that protect against a dangerous fast heart rhythm.

Learn More About Heart and Vascular Care
Behavioral Health

Living with an ICD can bring worry, and counseling helps people manage anxiety after a shock.

Learn More About Behavioral Health
Conditions
Heart failure

Heart failure means the heart pumps with less force than your body needs. It does not mean the heart has stopped. Baptist...

Learn More About Heart failure
Heart arrhythmia (tachycardia and bradycardia)

A heart arrhythmia is a problem with the heart's electrical signals, so the heart beats too fast, too slow or unevenly. Many...

Learn More About Heart arrhythmia (tachycardia and bradycardia)
Heart attack

A heart attack happens when blood flow to part of the heart muscle is suddenly blocked. It is an emergency: call 911....

Learn More About Heart attack
Treatments
Pacemaker implantation

A pacemaker is a small device placed under the skin near your collarbone. It senses a heartbeat that is too slow or pauses,...

Learn More About Pacemaker implantation
Cardiac rehabilitation

A medically supervised program of exercise, education and support that helps you rebuild strength after a heart attack, a...

Learn More About Cardiac rehabilitation
Cardiac catheter ablation

Cardiac catheter ablation treats an abnormal heart rhythm from inside the heart. Thin tubes guided through a vein find the...

Learn More About Cardiac catheter ablation
Implantable cardiac loop recorder placement

An implantable loop recorder is a very small device placed just under the skin of your chest. It records your heart rhythm...

Learn More About Implantable cardiac loop recorder placement
Cardioversion

Cardioversion resets a heart that is beating too fast or out of rhythm, most often in atrial fibrillation. You are given...

Learn More About Cardioversion

References

Written with the Baptist Health heart and vascular teams.

Talk With a Specialist

A first consultation or a second opinion starts with the practice that performs the procedure.

Find a Cardiologist

Implantable Cardiac Loop Recorder Placement

An implantable loop recorder is a very small device placed just under the skin of your chest. It records your heart rhythm for months or years, so your doctor can find out why you faint, feel palpitations, or have had a stroke with no clear cause.

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Some heart rhythm problems come and go. A short test in the office or a few days with a monitor can miss them. A loop recorder watches your heart all the time, whatever you are doing, and keeps a record. When your doctor needs to know whether a rhythm problem explains your symptoms, it gives them the answer.

Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, offers loop recorders through its heart rhythm practices in Alabama. Placement is a short procedure, and the device then works in the background.

Many people with a loop recorder go home the same day and forget it is there within a few weeks of placement, while it keeps watching for the rhythm that explains their symptoms. This page covers why your doctor may recommend one, how to get ready, what placement and the months of monitoring look like, and the risks to weigh before you decide.

What Is an Implantable Loop Recorder?

An implantable loop recorder (ILR) is a small device placed under the skin of your chest. It is small enough that many people forget it is there. It senses your heart's electrical activity, and when it detects a rhythm outside the limits your doctor has programmed, it records that rhythm automatically. The recordings are stored on the device.

To send them to your care team, you receive a wireless home monitor that pairs with your device. The monitor uses a cellular signal and a power outlet, so you do not need wireless internet or a data plan. Once a day, while the monitor is plugged in and within about six and a half feet of you, it collects your device's data and sends it. If your device recorded an abnormal rhythm, your clinic is notified. If not, the information is updated without a notice.

Why Implantable Cardiac Loop Recorder Placement Is Performed

A loop recorder is placed to catch a heart rhythm that comes and goes, so your doctor can match it to your symptoms and choose the right treatment, or rule a rhythm problem out.

Who Is a Candidate

Your doctor may recommend an ILR to:

  • Find the cause of fainting or near-fainting that other tests have not explained
  • Find the cause of palpitations that come and go
  • Look for atrial fibrillation after a stroke with no clear cause, or to see whether it returns after ablation or cardioversion

A Holter monitor records for a day or two, and other monitors you wear on the skin record for weeks. An ILR can record for years, which is why doctors choose it when symptoms are rare. The recording helps your doctor decide whether you need a pacemaker, a medicine, or another treatment. See also arrhythmias.

How to Prepare

Little preparation is needed. Your team tells you whether to take your usual medicines, including blood thinners, and whether you can eat beforehand. Wear a top that is easy to remove. Tell your team about allergies to numbing medicine or to adhesive. You may go home right after, so a ride is a good idea.

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What to Expect

During the Procedure

Placement is a short procedure, often 10 to 20 minutes. You lie back, the skin on the left side of your chest is cleaned and numbed, and the doctor makes a very small cut and slides the device just under the skin. A stitch, glue, or a small adhesive strip closes the cut. You stay awake. Most people feel a pinch from the numbing medicine and some pressure.

After the Procedure

Most people go back to normal activity the same day, following any limits your doctor gives. Keep the cut clean and dry until it has healed. A small scar remains.

Recovery

Your clinic watches for alerts and checks your summary each month. Alerts and monthly checks are handled Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. If you feel symptoms, such as fainting, call your doctor. Do not wait for the monitor. Call 911 for fainting with chest pain, a fast heartbeat that does not slow, or trouble breathing.

Insurance is billed monthly for monitoring. Most patients pay nothing each month, and some have a monthly copay, depending on the plan. A loop recorder's battery lasts for a few years, and when the answer you needed has been found, or the battery is low, the device is removed in a short visit.

Risks and Complications

Placement is low risk. Possible risks include soreness, bruising or bleeding at the site, infection, skin irritation, and, rarely, the device moving or pushing through the skin. Some recordings are false alarms, because the device cannot tell every harmless skip from a problem, and your care team reviews each alert. Ask your doctor about MRI, since most newer devices allow it under set conditions.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will I feel the device?

You may feel it as a small bump under the skin, and most people stop noticing it. It does not shock you or treat your heart. It records.

Can I go through airport security or use electronics?

Yes. Show your device card, and tell the screener you have an implanted device.

What if I faint or have symptoms and the monitor did not send anything?

Call your doctor and describe what happened, the time, and what you were doing. The device keeps the recording, and your team can look at it on the next transmission.

How long will I have it?

It depends on your symptoms and the device. Some people have it removed within a year or two after a diagnosis, and others keep it until the battery runs low. Your doctor decides with you.

Can I shower, swim and exercise with a loop recorder?

Once the small cut has healed, yes. Your team tells you when you can shower and when you can swim, and most people return to their usual exercise soon after placement.

Who Provides It and Where

Heart South Cardiovascular Group's cardiologists place loop recorders in the hospital and monitor them from the practice's offices in Alabaster, Clanton and Centreville:

Heart South schedules its own appointments through the practice's scheduling link. Ask your cardiologist whether a loop recorder is right for you, and which hospital it would be placed at.

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[n] doctors foundMany doctors have multiple practice locations. View the doctor's profile for a complete list of their locationsSort By: A to Z
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[Address Line]
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000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
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Comprehensive Care

Related Service Lines
Heart and Vascular Care

Cardiologists place the recorder and read its data to match symptoms to the heart rhythm.

Learn More About Heart and Vascular Care
Neuroscience

After a stroke with no clear cause, neurologists often ask for a loop recorder to look for AFib.

Learn More About Neuroscience
Conditions
Atrial fibrillation

Atrial fibrillation, or AFib, is the most common heart rhythm problem: the upper chambers beat in a fast, irregular pattern....

Learn More About Atrial fibrillation
Heart arrhythmia (tachycardia and bradycardia)

A heart arrhythmia is a problem with the heart's electrical signals, so the heart beats too fast, too slow or unevenly. Many...

Learn More About Heart arrhythmia (tachycardia and bradycardia)
Treatments
Cardiac catheter ablation

Cardiac catheter ablation treats an abnormal heart rhythm from inside the heart. Thin tubes guided through a vein find the...

Learn More About Cardiac catheter ablation
Cardioversion

Cardioversion resets a heart that is beating too fast or out of rhythm, most often in atrial fibrillation. You are given...

Learn More About Cardioversion
Holter monitor

A small, wearable heart recorder that tracks your heart's rhythm for a day or two while you go about your normal day. It...

Learn More About Holter monitor
Pacemaker implantation

A pacemaker is a small device placed under the skin near your collarbone. It senses a heartbeat that is too slow or pauses,...

Learn More About Pacemaker implantation
Implantable cardioverter-defibrillator placement

An implantable cardioverter-defibrillator, or ICD, is a small device placed under the skin. It watches your heart rhythm...

Learn More About Implantable cardioverter-defibrillator placement

References

Written with the Baptist Health heart and vascular teams.

Talk With a Specialist

A first consultation or a second opinion starts with the practice that performs the procedure.

Find a Cardiologist

Cardioversion

Cardioversion resets a heart that is beating too fast or out of rhythm, most often in atrial fibrillation. You are given medicine to sleep, a timed electrical shock restores a regular beat, and most people go home the same day.

Medically Reviewed Content
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This page's buttons: Find a Cardiologist. Read by someone weighing a procedure: the practice that performs it when only one does, otherwise the doctor finder for a first consultation or a second opinion.
RULINGEvery page's buttons are chosen for the reader who lands on it

A page shows zero, one or two buttons, each reasoned from the moment its reader is in. Leads go where a real decision exists (planning a birth, a diagnosis in pregnancy, a failed screen, a follow-up specialist, a pediatrician for a healthy newborn). A page read by a parent whose baby is in a NICU now offers the page's own help and the support every NICU family gets, never a sales button. No button anywhere asks anyone to choose a NICU.

  • Nobody plans a NICU stay: a baby comes to one from the delivery room or by transfer between hospitals, so a button to find one serves no reader.
  • A baby in a NICU already has its doctors at the bedside, and most families name a pediatrician before discharge, so a pediatrician button on an apnea page sells to nobody.
  • Serving the business and serving the parent are meant to agree: where no honest lead exists, help that keeps the family with Orlando Health is the business value.
  • Two slots are a ceiling, never a quota: a filler button beside a page's one real action comes off.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDRelated services are single service lines, in the designer's Services tab

Related services render as the Services tab of the designer's tabs module, as he drew them: six cards on a line page, each one service line on the ruled list, never two specialties under one name, each with one sentence on how that line joins a newborn's care.

  • The designer's service line and location frames show Services, Conditions and Treatments as three tabs, the Services tab holding six single-line cards with a sentence each.
  • The ruled list of children's service lines carries pediatric hematology and pediatric oncology, pulmonology and sleep medicine, neurology and neurosurgery as separate lines; a combined name matches no page that will exist.
  • A gate refuses any service card whose name is not a ruled line.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDThe page is set in Lufga, the typeface Orlando Health uses, at its three weights

Every page uses Lufga, loaded from orlandohealth.com, at 400, 500 and 700 only. Headings 700, the hero paragraph 500, body and buttons 400.

  • Read on orlandohealth.com, 2026-10-20: the site loads Lufga in three files, Regular 400, Medium 500 and Bold 700, and sets its headings at 700.
  • The designer's frames are set in the same face; an earlier build used a stand-in, which is why its weights read differently beside his frames.

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Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDButtons are the designer's slim pills, with an icon in the hero

Pills are about 2.4 times their label tall, regular weight, with no border on solid pills; the two hero pills are equal width across the paragraph, each led by an ink icon chosen from its label. The facility hero's pills carry no icon.

  • Measured across the designer's frames: every pill is 2.3 to 2.5 times its label tall, and the hero pills carry a calendar or a phone before the label.
  • A gate checks every rendered pill against these proportions.

Decided 2026-10-20

RESEARCHBreadcrumbs show a page's place in the site; a back link and the line card give the way back

A library page's breadcrumbs follow its address (Home, Health Library, Conditions, the page), because one condition page serves every line that treats it. The way back to the line comes from two other places: the first card in the page's Services tab is the line itself, always; and a visitor who arrived from a line, unit, team or program page also sees a Back link at the right of the crumb bar, naming that page.

  • Breadcrumbs should show a page's place in the site's hierarchy, never the visitor's history; history trails grow long and repetitive and do nothing for a visitor who arrives from search.
  • A page with more than one parent shows one canonical trail for everyone, which keeps the page's signal to search engines consistent.
  • A separate link back to where the visitor came from is a common pattern (a store's Back to Results) and leaves the canonical trail untouched.
  • Tested in the demo: a parent reading condition pages could not find the way back to the Neonatal Care page.

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If your heart has been racing, fluttering or skipping, and medicine alone has not brought it back to a regular beat, your cardiologist may suggest cardioversion. It sounds dramatic. In practice it is a short, planned procedure done while you are asleep, and many people leave the same day. Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, offers cardioversion through its heart practices across central Alabama.

The heart keeps its rhythm with small electrical signals. In an arrhythmia such as atrial fibrillation, those signals scramble. Cardioversion gives the heart a reset so the normal signal can take over again. This page explains who it helps, how to get ready, what the day looks like, and what to watch for afterward.

Cardioversion is often one step in a longer plan for your heart rhythm. Your cardiologist will talk with you about how it fits with your medicines, your stroke prevention and any later treatment, so you know what comes next before the day arrives.

What Is Cardioversion?

Cardioversion is a treatment that changes an abnormal heart rhythm back to a normal one. There are two kinds. Electrical cardioversion uses a carefully timed, mild electrical shock. Medicine-based cardioversion uses heart rhythm drugs, given by mouth or through an IV. The shock is timed to the heartbeat so that it interrupts the abnormal rhythm and lets the heart's own pacemaker take back control.

Most scheduled cardioversions are outpatient procedures. A cardioversion can also be done urgently when a fast rhythm is making someone faint or short of breath. This page is about the scheduled kind.

Why Cardioversion Is Performed

Cardioversion is used for rhythm problems that have not responded to medicine alone. The most common reason is atrial fibrillation, where the upper chambers of the heart quiver and the pulse turns irregular. It can also treat atrial flutter and some other fast rhythms. See heart arrhythmia for the full range.

Who Is a Candidate

You may be a candidate if your rhythm problem causes symptoms such as a racing heart, tiredness, breathlessness or lightheadedness, or if your cardiologist wants to try restoring a regular rhythm. Your cardiologist will look at how long you have been in the abnormal rhythm, your stroke risk and your other medicines before recommending it.

How to Prepare

  • Blood thinner. Blood can pool and form clots in a quivering heart, and a shock can move a clot. Your cardiologist will either have you take a blood thinner for several weeks before, or check the heart for clots first with a transesophageal echocardiogram, an ultrasound taken through the throat while you are sedated. Take your blood thinner exactly as prescribed, with no missed doses.
  • Food and drink. You will be asked not to eat or drink for several hours before, and your team will tell you exactly how long. Ask your team which morning medicines to take with a sip of water.
  • A ride home. The sedation makes driving unsafe for the rest of the day, so arrange for someone to drive you and, ideally, stay with you that evening.
  • What to bring. A list of your medicines and the name of the cardiologist who referred you.
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What to Expect

During the Procedure

You arrive a few hours before the procedure so the team can check your vital signs, place an IV and review your medicines. Small sticky pads go on your chest and back to monitor the heart and deliver the shock. A medicine through the IV puts you to sleep, so you feel nothing. The shock lasts a fraction of a second, and the team watches the monitor to see whether a regular rhythm returns.

If the rhythm does not hold on the first try, the team may repeat the shock or adjust the energy.

After the Procedure

You wake within minutes and are watched closely for an hour or more. Most people go home the same day after the team is satisfied with the rhythm and your blood pressure.

Recovery

Plan to rest for the day and avoid driving until the next day. Most people return to usual activities within a day or two.

Keep taking your blood thinner after cardioversion, usually for at least four weeks and often longer, based on your stroke risk. Some people also stay on a rhythm medicine afterward. Learn more at anticoagulation therapy and monitoring.

Call 911 if you have signs of a stroke (face drooping, arm weakness, trouble speaking), chest pain, fainting, or severe shortness of breath. Call your cardiologist if your heart starts racing or fluttering again, since the rhythm can return.

Risks and Complications

The main risks are these.

  • A blood clot moving to the brain, which could cause a stroke. This is the reason for the blood thinner or the clot check beforehand.
  • Skin irritation where the pads were, like a mild sunburn, for a few days.
  • Another abnormal rhythm after the shock, which the team is ready to treat.
  • A reaction to the sedation medicine, which is uncommon.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will I feel the shock?

No. You are asleep for the procedure and do not remember it. Your chest skin may feel tender afterward.

Does cardioversion cure atrial fibrillation?

It restores a normal rhythm, and for some people the rhythm stays regular. For others, atrial fibrillation returns, and your cardiologist may suggest medicine or a longer-term treatment such as cardiac catheter ablation.

Is cardioversion the same as a defibrillator shock?

They use the same kind of equipment. A scheduled cardioversion uses a lower energy shock that is timed to your heartbeat, and you are asleep. An implantable cardioverter-defibrillator is a device that stays in your chest and shocks only when needed.

When can I drive and go back to work?

Most people can drive the day after and return to usual activities within a day or two. Your cardiologist will tell you what is right for you.

Will I need more than one cardioversion?

Some people do. If the abnormal rhythm returns, a repeat cardioversion may be offered, and your cardiologist may also suggest a rhythm medicine or cardiac catheter ablation to help a regular rhythm last.

Who Provides It and Where

Cardioversion is done in the hospital and is scheduled by the cardiologists of Baptist Health Cardiovascular Associates and Heart South Cardiovascular Group. Ask the practice that follows your heart rhythm to schedule it, and book through that practice's own scheduling link: baptisthealthal.com/cva for Cardiovascular Associates, heartsouthpc.com for Heart South.

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[n] doctors foundMany doctors have multiple practice locations. View the doctor's profile for a complete list of their locationsSort By: A to Z
[Doctor Name 1], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
[Doctor Name 2], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
[Doctor Name 3], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
123›

Comprehensive Care

Related Service Lines
Heart and Vascular Care

Cardiologists perform cardioversion to reset AFib or flutter back to a regular rhythm.

Learn More About Heart and Vascular Care
Neuroscience

Stroke prevention before cardioversion protects the brain, which is why blood thinners come first.

Learn More About Neuroscience
Conditions
Atrial fibrillation

Atrial fibrillation, or AFib, is the most common heart rhythm problem: the upper chambers beat in a fast, irregular pattern....

Learn More About Atrial fibrillation
Heart arrhythmia (tachycardia and bradycardia)

A heart arrhythmia is a problem with the heart's electrical signals, so the heart beats too fast, too slow or unevenly. Many...

Learn More About Heart arrhythmia (tachycardia and bradycardia)
Treatments
Echocardiogram

A painless ultrasound of your heart. Sound waves make a moving picture that shows the size and thickness of your heart, how...

Learn More About Echocardiogram
Anticoagulation therapy and monitoring

Anticoagulants, often called blood thinners, lower the chance that a dangerous clot forms. If you take warfarin (Coumadin),...

Learn More About Anticoagulation therapy and monitoring
Cardiac catheter ablation

Cardiac catheter ablation treats an abnormal heart rhythm from inside the heart. Thin tubes guided through a vein find the...

Learn More About Cardiac catheter ablation
Implantable cardioverter-defibrillator placement

An implantable cardioverter-defibrillator, or ICD, is a small device placed under the skin. It watches your heart rhythm...

Learn More About Implantable cardioverter-defibrillator placement
Pacemaker implantation

A pacemaker is a small device placed under the skin near your collarbone. It senses a heartbeat that is too slow or pauses,...

Learn More About Pacemaker implantation
Implantable cardiac loop recorder placement

An implantable loop recorder is a very small device placed just under the skin of your chest. It records your heart rhythm...

Learn More About Implantable cardiac loop recorder placement

Talk With a Specialist

A first consultation or a second opinion starts with the practice that performs the procedure.

Find a Cardiologist

Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement

Transcatheter aortic valve replacement, or TAVR, gives you a new aortic valve through a thin tube placed in an artery, without opening your chest. It treats severe aortic stenosis, and a team of heart doctors decides together whether it is right for you.

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Research and Evidence for This Page

This page's buttons: Find a Cardiologist. Read by someone weighing a procedure: the practice that performs it when only one does, otherwise the doctor finder for a first consultation or a second opinion.
RULINGEvery page's buttons are chosen for the reader who lands on it

A page shows zero, one or two buttons, each reasoned from the moment its reader is in. Leads go where a real decision exists (planning a birth, a diagnosis in pregnancy, a failed screen, a follow-up specialist, a pediatrician for a healthy newborn). A page read by a parent whose baby is in a NICU now offers the page's own help and the support every NICU family gets, never a sales button. No button anywhere asks anyone to choose a NICU.

  • Nobody plans a NICU stay: a baby comes to one from the delivery room or by transfer between hospitals, so a button to find one serves no reader.
  • A baby in a NICU already has its doctors at the bedside, and most families name a pediatrician before discharge, so a pediatrician button on an apnea page sells to nobody.
  • Serving the business and serving the parent are meant to agree: where no honest lead exists, help that keeps the family with Orlando Health is the business value.
  • Two slots are a ceiling, never a quota: a filler button beside a page's one real action comes off.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDRelated services are single service lines, in the designer's Services tab

Related services render as the Services tab of the designer's tabs module, as he drew them: six cards on a line page, each one service line on the ruled list, never two specialties under one name, each with one sentence on how that line joins a newborn's care.

  • The designer's service line and location frames show Services, Conditions and Treatments as three tabs, the Services tab holding six single-line cards with a sentence each.
  • The ruled list of children's service lines carries pediatric hematology and pediatric oncology, pulmonology and sleep medicine, neurology and neurosurgery as separate lines; a combined name matches no page that will exist.
  • A gate refuses any service card whose name is not a ruled line.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDThe page is set in Lufga, the typeface Orlando Health uses, at its three weights

Every page uses Lufga, loaded from orlandohealth.com, at 400, 500 and 700 only. Headings 700, the hero paragraph 500, body and buttons 400.

  • Read on orlandohealth.com, 2026-10-20: the site loads Lufga in three files, Regular 400, Medium 500 and Bold 700, and sets its headings at 700.
  • The designer's frames are set in the same face; an earlier build used a stand-in, which is why its weights read differently beside his frames.

Sources

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDButtons are the designer's slim pills, with an icon in the hero

Pills are about 2.4 times their label tall, regular weight, with no border on solid pills; the two hero pills are equal width across the paragraph, each led by an ink icon chosen from its label. The facility hero's pills carry no icon.

  • Measured across the designer's frames: every pill is 2.3 to 2.5 times its label tall, and the hero pills carry a calendar or a phone before the label.
  • A gate checks every rendered pill against these proportions.

Decided 2026-10-20

RESEARCHBreadcrumbs show a page's place in the site; a back link and the line card give the way back

A library page's breadcrumbs follow its address (Home, Health Library, Conditions, the page), because one condition page serves every line that treats it. The way back to the line comes from two other places: the first card in the page's Services tab is the line itself, always; and a visitor who arrived from a line, unit, team or program page also sees a Back link at the right of the crumb bar, naming that page.

  • Breadcrumbs should show a page's place in the site's hierarchy, never the visitor's history; history trails grow long and repetitive and do nothing for a visitor who arrives from search.
  • A page with more than one parent shows one canonical trail for everyone, which keeps the page's signal to search engines consistent.
  • A separate link back to where the visitor came from is a common pattern (a store's Back to Results) and leaves the canonical trail untouched.
  • Tested in the demo: a parent reading condition pages could not find the way back to the Neonatal Care page.

Sources

Decided 2026-10-21

If your doctor has told you that the aortic valve in your heart has narrowed, you may be hearing the letters TAVR for the first time. A narrowed valve makes the heart work harder to push blood out to the body, and over time it can cause breathlessness, chest pressure and fainting. Replacing the valve is the treatment that relieves it. TAVR is one way to do that, and the new valve goes in through a catheter rather than through an open chest.

Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, offers TAVR at Baptist Health Brookwood Hospital in Birmingham, where it is performed by a Heart Team of interventional cardiologists and a cardiac surgeon. This page explains who TAVR helps, what the day looks like and what recovery involves.

Before the day, you meet the Heart Team and have scans that size the valve and the arteries it travels through.

What Is TAVR?

TAVR replaces a diseased aortic valve with a new one delivered on a catheter, a thin flexible tube. The new valve is folded small, guided to the heart and expanded inside the old valve, which it pushes aside. It starts working at once. The team does not remove the old valve, and the heart does not need to be stopped.

The catheter usually enters through an artery in the groin, and other entry points are used when the groin arteries are narrow. The Heart Team chooses the route that suits your body.

Why TAVR Is Performed

TAVR treats severe aortic stenosis, a narrowing of the valve that sends blood from the heart to the rest of the body. See heart valve disease for how valve problems are found and followed. It is approved for people at high, intermediate and low risk from open-heart surgery.

Who Is a Candidate

TAVR may be a good fit if:

  • you have severe aortic stenosis with symptoms, or your heart is being strained by it;
  • your Heart Team has reviewed your scans and your health and finds TAVR appropriate;
  • open-heart surgery would put you at higher risk because of your age, other conditions or frailty, or you and your team prefer a catheter approach.

For some people, aortic valve repair or replacement by open surgery is the better choice. Age, valve shape and your other health conditions decide, and your Heart Team talks that through with you.

How to Prepare

Before TAVR you have a set of tests, which usually include an echocardiogram, a CT scan of the heart and blood vessels and a cardiac catheterization. They show the size of your valve and the path the catheter will take. You then meet the Heart Team, which reviews your case together.

Expect to be asked to stop eating and drinking the night before, and your team will tell you which medicines to take or hold, including blood thinners. Bring a list of your medicines and a family member or friend if you can.

Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

[Resource Headline]

[Optional Sub-Heading]

[Brief description of the resource]

[Resource Download/Access][Optional Secondary CTA]

What to Expect

During the Procedure

You are given anesthesia, which may be general anesthesia or sedation that keeps you relaxed. The cardiologist places the catheter, guides the new valve to the right spot, expands it and checks with imaging that it works. A temporary pacing wire is often used during the procedure to control the heart rate. The procedure takes about two to three hours.

After the Procedure

Most people stay in the hospital one to three days and feel better soon after, often with easier breathing within days.

Recovery

You will take a blood thinner or antiplatelet medicine as your cardiologist directs, and you will have an echocardiogram to check the valve. Many people return to their usual activities within two to four weeks. Your team may refer you to cardiac rehabilitation, a supervised exercise and education program offered at Baptist Health Shelby Hospital and Baptist Health Princeton Hospital. A chaplain and spiritual care are available to you and your family at any Baptist Health hospital if you want them.

Risks and Complications

Every procedure has risks, and your team will go through yours before you sign. The main risks of TAVR are:

  • bleeding or bruising where the catheter went in, and injury to a blood vessel;
  • stroke;
  • an irregular heartbeat or a slow heartbeat that needs a pacemaker;
  • a small leak around the new valve;
  • kidney strain from the dye used for imaging;
  • rarely, an emergency that calls for open-heart surgery. A cardiac surgeon is part of the Heart Team for this reason.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a Heart Team?

A Heart Team is the group of heart specialists who look at your case together before a valve decision is made. At Baptist Health it includes interventional cardiologists and a cardiac surgeon.

How long does a TAVR valve last?

Doctors follow transcatheter valves with echocardiograms, and how long they last is studied closely. Your cardiologist will talk with you about what to expect for your age and health.

What is the difference between TAVR and open-heart valve surgery?

TAVR places a new valve through a catheter. Open-heart surgery opens the chest and replaces the valve directly. Both are proven treatments, and the right one depends on your age, valve and health.

Will I need a pacemaker afterward?

Some people do, because the new valve lies close to the heart's electrical wiring. Your team checks your heart rhythm before you go home.

Will I need another valve later?

Some people do, years later, if the new valve wears. A worn TAVR valve can often be treated with a second valve placed inside it through a catheter, and your echocardiograms help your team see this coming.

Who Provides It and Where

TAVR is performed at Baptist Health Brookwood Hospital by the Heart Team, led in structural heart by Stephen Bakir, MD. Referral and follow-up are through Baptist Health Cardiovascular Associates, which books through baptisthealthal.com/cva, or Heart South Cardiovascular Group, which books through heartsouthpc.com. The Baptist Health Valve Clinic, 2022 Brookwood Medical Center Drive, MOB B, Suite 210, Birmingham, AL 35209, (205) 877-2901, is where a progressing valve problem is referred for evaluation.

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[n] doctors foundMany doctors have multiple practice locations. View the doctor's profile for a complete list of their locationsSort By: A to Z
[Doctor Name 1], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
[Doctor Name 2], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
[Doctor Name 3], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
123›

Comprehensive Care

Related Service Lines
Heart and Vascular Care

A Heart Team of cardiologists and a cardiac surgeon decides together when TAVR is the right choice.

Learn More About Heart and Vascular Care
Radiology and Diagnostic Imaging

A CT scan before TAVR sizes the new valve and maps the arteries it travels through.

Learn More About Radiology and Diagnostic Imaging
Conditions
Heart valve disease

Heart valve disease means one or more of the heart's four valves does not open or close as it should. Many people are...

Learn More About Heart valve disease
Treatments
Aortic valve repair or replacement

Aortic valve surgery replaces, or in some cases repairs, the valve that sends blood from your heart to the rest of your...

Learn More About Aortic valve repair or replacement
Echocardiogram

A painless ultrasound of your heart. Sound waves make a moving picture that shows the size and thickness of your heart, how...

Learn More About Echocardiogram
Cardiac catheterization

Cardiac catheterization uses a thin, flexible tube guided through a blood vessel to your heart. It shows your doctor how...

Learn More About Cardiac catheterization
Cardiac rehabilitation

A medically supervised program of exercise, education and support that helps you rebuild strength after a heart attack, a...

Learn More About Cardiac rehabilitation
Transcatheter mitral valve repair

Transcatheter mitral valve repair fixes a leaking mitral valve with a small clip placed through a vein in the leg, without...

Learn More About Transcatheter mitral valve repair
Left atrial appendage closure

Left atrial appendage closure seals a small pouch in the heart where clots form in atrial fibrillation, to lower stroke...

Learn More About Left atrial appendage closure

References

Talk With a Specialist

A first consultation or a second opinion starts with the practice that performs the procedure.

Find a Cardiologist

Transcatheter Mitral Valve Repair

Transcatheter mitral valve repair fixes a leaking mitral valve with a small clip placed through a vein in the leg, without opening the chest. It can ease breathlessness and tiredness for people whose valve leaks and who are weighing surgery.

Medically Reviewed Content
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Research and Evidence for This Page

This page's buttons: Find a Cardiologist. Read by someone weighing a procedure: the practice that performs it when only one does, otherwise the doctor finder for a first consultation or a second opinion.
RULINGEvery page's buttons are chosen for the reader who lands on it

A page shows zero, one or two buttons, each reasoned from the moment its reader is in. Leads go where a real decision exists (planning a birth, a diagnosis in pregnancy, a failed screen, a follow-up specialist, a pediatrician for a healthy newborn). A page read by a parent whose baby is in a NICU now offers the page's own help and the support every NICU family gets, never a sales button. No button anywhere asks anyone to choose a NICU.

  • Nobody plans a NICU stay: a baby comes to one from the delivery room or by transfer between hospitals, so a button to find one serves no reader.
  • A baby in a NICU already has its doctors at the bedside, and most families name a pediatrician before discharge, so a pediatrician button on an apnea page sells to nobody.
  • Serving the business and serving the parent are meant to agree: where no honest lead exists, help that keeps the family with Orlando Health is the business value.
  • Two slots are a ceiling, never a quota: a filler button beside a page's one real action comes off.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDRelated services are single service lines, in the designer's Services tab

Related services render as the Services tab of the designer's tabs module, as he drew them: six cards on a line page, each one service line on the ruled list, never two specialties under one name, each with one sentence on how that line joins a newborn's care.

  • The designer's service line and location frames show Services, Conditions and Treatments as three tabs, the Services tab holding six single-line cards with a sentence each.
  • The ruled list of children's service lines carries pediatric hematology and pediatric oncology, pulmonology and sleep medicine, neurology and neurosurgery as separate lines; a combined name matches no page that will exist.
  • A gate refuses any service card whose name is not a ruled line.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDThe page is set in Lufga, the typeface Orlando Health uses, at its three weights

Every page uses Lufga, loaded from orlandohealth.com, at 400, 500 and 700 only. Headings 700, the hero paragraph 500, body and buttons 400.

  • Read on orlandohealth.com, 2026-10-20: the site loads Lufga in three files, Regular 400, Medium 500 and Bold 700, and sets its headings at 700.
  • The designer's frames are set in the same face; an earlier build used a stand-in, which is why its weights read differently beside his frames.

Sources

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDButtons are the designer's slim pills, with an icon in the hero

Pills are about 2.4 times their label tall, regular weight, with no border on solid pills; the two hero pills are equal width across the paragraph, each led by an ink icon chosen from its label. The facility hero's pills carry no icon.

  • Measured across the designer's frames: every pill is 2.3 to 2.5 times its label tall, and the hero pills carry a calendar or a phone before the label.
  • A gate checks every rendered pill against these proportions.

Decided 2026-10-20

RESEARCHBreadcrumbs show a page's place in the site; a back link and the line card give the way back

A library page's breadcrumbs follow its address (Home, Health Library, Conditions, the page), because one condition page serves every line that treats it. The way back to the line comes from two other places: the first card in the page's Services tab is the line itself, always; and a visitor who arrived from a line, unit, team or program page also sees a Back link at the right of the crumb bar, naming that page.

  • Breadcrumbs should show a page's place in the site's hierarchy, never the visitor's history; history trails grow long and repetitive and do nothing for a visitor who arrives from search.
  • A page with more than one parent shows one canonical trail for everyone, which keeps the page's signal to search engines consistent.
  • A separate link back to where the visitor came from is a common pattern (a store's Back to Results) and leaves the canonical trail untouched.
  • Tested in the demo: a parent reading condition pages could not find the way back to the Neonatal Care page.

Sources

Decided 2026-10-21

If your cardiologist has told you the mitral valve in your heart leaks, you may have noticed the effects before you knew the name: breathlessness on stairs, tiredness, swollen ankles, a cough at night. A leaking valve lets blood flow backward, so the heart works harder to move the same amount forward. Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, treats mitral valve leaks with valve surgery and, for people who are right for it, with a repair done through a catheter.

This page covers the catheter repair, who it helps, what the day looks like, and what recovery involves. If your team is also weighing surgery, read mitral valve repair or replacement alongside it.

Before the day, you meet the Heart Team and have detailed ultrasound pictures of the valve, taken through the throat, which show whether a clip can fit your valve, so you know the plan.

What Is Transcatheter Mitral Valve Repair?

The mitral valve has two flaps, called leaflets, that open to let blood into the main pumping chamber and close to keep it from flowing back. When they do not close fully, blood leaks backward. This is called mitral regurgitation. In transcatheter edge-to-edge repair, the cardiologist fastens the two leaflets together with a small clip so the valve closes better and the leak shrinks. The clip stays in your heart for good.

The clip travels on a catheter, a thin flexible tube, which goes in through a vein in the groin and reaches the heart through a small opening between the heart's upper chambers. Ultrasound pictures taken through the throat guide the placement.

Why Transcatheter Mitral Valve Repair Is Performed

The repair is for people with a significant mitral leak and symptoms. It is most often offered when open-heart surgery would put you at high risk, or when the leak is caused by a weakened heart and symptoms continue despite the best medicines. See heart valve disease and heart failure.

Who Is a Candidate

You may be a candidate if you:

  • have a leaking mitral valve with symptoms such as breathlessness or tiredness;
  • are at higher risk from open-heart surgery because of age, other health conditions or frailty, or have heart failure that medicine alone has not controlled;
  • have a valve whose shape and your heart's anatomy suit a clip, which the imaging tests show.

Your Heart Team looks at all of this together. For some people, surgery to repair or replace the valve is the better choice, and the team will say so.

How to Prepare

You will have an echocardiogram, usually including an ultrasound taken through the throat, and sometimes a cardiac catheterization. They show how the valve leaks and whether a clip will fit. Your team will tell you when to stop eating and drinking and which medicines to take or hold, including blood thinners. Bring a list of your medicines and a family member or friend if you can.

Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

[Resource Headline]

[Optional Sub-Heading]

[Brief description of the resource]

[Resource Download/Access][Optional Secondary CTA]

What to Expect

During the Procedure

You receive general anesthesia, so you sleep through the procedure. The cardiologist guides the catheter to the heart, positions the clip across the two leaflets, and checks with ultrasound that the leak has shrunk before releasing it. If one clip does not do enough, a second may be added. The procedure usually takes one to three hours.

After the Procedure

Most people spend one to two nights in the hospital, then rest at home and build activity back over days to a few weeks.

Recovery

Many people feel less breathless within weeks as the heart no longer works against a large leak. You will have follow-up echocardiograms to check the clip, and your cardiologist will tell you which blood thinner or antiplatelet medicine to take and for how long. Your team may refer you to cardiac rehabilitation, a supervised exercise and education program offered at Baptist Health Shelby Hospital and Baptist Health Princeton Hospital. A chaplain and spiritual care are available to you and your family at any Baptist Health hospital if you want them.

Risks and Complications

Your team will go through your own risks with you before you agree. The main ones are:

  • bleeding or bruising where the catheter went in, and injury to a blood vessel;
  • a small hole in the wall between the upper chambers where the catheter crossed, which usually closes or is monitored;
  • a clip that loosens from one leaflet, or a leak that remains, which can need a second procedure or surgery;
  • stroke, an irregular heartbeat or infection, which are uncommon;
  • fluid around the heart, which is rare and treated in the same hospital stay.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is this open-heart surgery?

No. The clip goes in through a vein and the chest is not opened. Surgery to repair or replace the mitral valve is a separate option, covered on its own page.

Will the leak go away completely?

The goal is to reduce the leak to a level your heart can manage, and many people get a large improvement. Some leak often remains, and your team will measure it with follow-up echocardiograms.

Can the same approach treat the tricuspid valve?

Clips are also used on the tricuspid valve on the right side of the heart. Ask your cardiologist whether that applies to you.

Who decides if I am a candidate?

Your Heart Team does, after reviewing your ultrasound pictures, your symptoms and your other health conditions.

Will I still need my heart medicines after the repair?

Most people do. The clip treats the leak, and medicines for heart failure, blood pressure or rhythm often stay part of the plan. Your cardiologist reviews them at your follow-up visits and adjusts them as your heart recovers.

Who Provides It and Where

Transcatheter mitral valve repair is performed by the structural heart team, led by Stephen Bakir, MD, at Baptist Health Brookwood Hospital. Referral and follow-up are through Baptist Health Cardiovascular Associates, which books through baptisthealthal.com/cva, or Heart South Cardiovascular Group, which books through heartsouthpc.com. The Baptist Health Valve Clinic, 2022 Brookwood Medical Center Drive, MOB B, Suite 210, Birmingham, AL 35209, (205) 877-2901, is where a progressing valve problem is referred for evaluation.

Type a city or zip code
Use My Location
Type a doctor's first or last name
Female Male
View Doctors with Online Scheduling
[n] doctors foundMany doctors have multiple practice locations. View the doctor's profile for a complete list of their locationsSort By: A to Z
[Doctor Name 1], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
[Doctor Name 2], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
[Doctor Name 3], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
123›

Comprehensive Care

Related Service Lines
Heart and Vascular Care

Structural heart cardiologists place the clip when a leaking mitral valve needs repair without surgery.

Learn More About Heart and Vascular Care
Conditions
Heart valve disease

Heart valve disease means one or more of the heart's four valves does not open or close as it should. Many people are...

Learn More About Heart valve disease
Heart failure

Heart failure means the heart pumps with less force than your body needs. It does not mean the heart has stopped. Baptist...

Learn More About Heart failure
Treatments
Mitral valve repair or replacement

Mitral valve surgery repairs a leaking or narrowed valve between the upper and lower left chambers of your heart, or...

Learn More About Mitral valve repair or replacement
Echocardiogram

A painless ultrasound of your heart. Sound waves make a moving picture that shows the size and thickness of your heart, how...

Learn More About Echocardiogram
Cardiac catheterization

Cardiac catheterization uses a thin, flexible tube guided through a blood vessel to your heart. It shows your doctor how...

Learn More About Cardiac catheterization
Cardiac rehabilitation

A medically supervised program of exercise, education and support that helps you rebuild strength after a heart attack, a...

Learn More About Cardiac rehabilitation
Transcatheter aortic valve replacement

Transcatheter aortic valve replacement, or TAVR, gives you a new aortic valve through a thin tube placed in an artery,...

Learn More About Transcatheter aortic valve replacement
Left atrial appendage closure

Left atrial appendage closure seals a small pouch in the heart where clots form in atrial fibrillation, to lower stroke...

Learn More About Left atrial appendage closure

References

Talk With a Specialist

A first consultation or a second opinion starts with the practice that performs the procedure.

Find a Cardiologist

Left Atrial Appendage Closure

Left atrial appendage closure seals a small pouch in the heart where clots form in atrial fibrillation, to lower stroke risk. It is a one-time catheter procedure for people who cannot stay on blood thinners for life.

Medically Reviewed Content
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Research and Evidence for This Page

This page's buttons: Find a Cardiologist. Read by someone weighing a procedure: the practice that performs it when only one does, otherwise the doctor finder for a first consultation or a second opinion.
RULINGEvery page's buttons are chosen for the reader who lands on it

A page shows zero, one or two buttons, each reasoned from the moment its reader is in. Leads go where a real decision exists (planning a birth, a diagnosis in pregnancy, a failed screen, a follow-up specialist, a pediatrician for a healthy newborn). A page read by a parent whose baby is in a NICU now offers the page's own help and the support every NICU family gets, never a sales button. No button anywhere asks anyone to choose a NICU.

  • Nobody plans a NICU stay: a baby comes to one from the delivery room or by transfer between hospitals, so a button to find one serves no reader.
  • A baby in a NICU already has its doctors at the bedside, and most families name a pediatrician before discharge, so a pediatrician button on an apnea page sells to nobody.
  • Serving the business and serving the parent are meant to agree: where no honest lead exists, help that keeps the family with Orlando Health is the business value.
  • Two slots are a ceiling, never a quota: a filler button beside a page's one real action comes off.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDRelated services are single service lines, in the designer's Services tab

Related services render as the Services tab of the designer's tabs module, as he drew them: six cards on a line page, each one service line on the ruled list, never two specialties under one name, each with one sentence on how that line joins a newborn's care.

  • The designer's service line and location frames show Services, Conditions and Treatments as three tabs, the Services tab holding six single-line cards with a sentence each.
  • The ruled list of children's service lines carries pediatric hematology and pediatric oncology, pulmonology and sleep medicine, neurology and neurosurgery as separate lines; a combined name matches no page that will exist.
  • A gate refuses any service card whose name is not a ruled line.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDThe page is set in Lufga, the typeface Orlando Health uses, at its three weights

Every page uses Lufga, loaded from orlandohealth.com, at 400, 500 and 700 only. Headings 700, the hero paragraph 500, body and buttons 400.

  • Read on orlandohealth.com, 2026-10-20: the site loads Lufga in three files, Regular 400, Medium 500 and Bold 700, and sets its headings at 700.
  • The designer's frames are set in the same face; an earlier build used a stand-in, which is why its weights read differently beside his frames.

Sources

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDButtons are the designer's slim pills, with an icon in the hero

Pills are about 2.4 times their label tall, regular weight, with no border on solid pills; the two hero pills are equal width across the paragraph, each led by an ink icon chosen from its label. The facility hero's pills carry no icon.

  • Measured across the designer's frames: every pill is 2.3 to 2.5 times its label tall, and the hero pills carry a calendar or a phone before the label.
  • A gate checks every rendered pill against these proportions.

Decided 2026-10-20

RESEARCHBreadcrumbs show a page's place in the site; a back link and the line card give the way back

A library page's breadcrumbs follow its address (Home, Health Library, Conditions, the page), because one condition page serves every line that treats it. The way back to the line comes from two other places: the first card in the page's Services tab is the line itself, always; and a visitor who arrived from a line, unit, team or program page also sees a Back link at the right of the crumb bar, naming that page.

  • Breadcrumbs should show a page's place in the site's hierarchy, never the visitor's history; history trails grow long and repetitive and do nothing for a visitor who arrives from search.
  • A page with more than one parent shows one canonical trail for everyone, which keeps the page's signal to search engines consistent.
  • A separate link back to where the visitor came from is a common pattern (a store's Back to Results) and leaves the canonical trail untouched.
  • Tested in the demo: a parent reading condition pages could not find the way back to the Neonatal Care page.

Sources

Decided 2026-10-21

Atrial fibrillation raises the risk of stroke, and the usual protection is a blood thinner taken every day. For most people that works well. For some, long-term blood thinners cause bleeding, a fall would be dangerous, or the medicine simply cannot be tolerated. Left atrial appendage closure, often shortened to LAAC, gives those people another way to lower the risk of stroke. Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, offers it through its heart rhythm and structural heart teams.

This page explains what the procedure does, who it is for, what the day looks like and what recovery involves.

Closure is a decision you make with your cardiologist after weighing your stroke risk against your bleeding risk, often over more than one visit. You will go over your heart imaging together and talk through what the implant can and cannot do, so you know the plan and what follows it before the day comes.

What Is Left Atrial Appendage Closure?

The left atrial appendage is a small pouch on the wall of the heart's upper left chamber. In atrial fibrillation, the chamber quivers rather than squeezing, blood moves slowly inside that pouch, and clots can form there. A clot that leaves the heart can travel to the brain and cause a stroke. In people with atrial fibrillation not caused by a valve problem, most of these clots form in the appendage.

Closure seals off the pouch with a small implant, such as the WATCHMAN device, so clots that form there cannot enter the bloodstream. The implant stays in place for good, and the heart tissue grows over it.

Why Left Atrial Appendage Closure Is Performed

Closure is an option for people with atrial fibrillation who have a high risk of stroke and a good reason to avoid long-term blood thinners. Most stroke-causing clots in atrial fibrillation form in the left atrial appendage, so sealing it lowers the risk without a lifelong blood thinner.

Who Is a Candidate

You may be a candidate if you:

  • have atrial fibrillation that is not caused by a heart valve problem;
  • are at higher risk of stroke, as your cardiologist measures it;
  • have had serious bleeding, are at high risk of bleeding or falls, or cannot stay on blood thinners for another reason.

Medicine remains the first treatment for most people, and closure does not replace a blood thinner in the first weeks. Your cardiologist will weigh your stroke risk and bleeding risk with you. See anticoagulation therapy and monitoring for the medicine side.

How to Prepare

Before closure you have an imaging test to measure the appendage, either a CT scan or an ultrasound taken through the throat, and often an echocardiogram. Your team will tell you when to stop eating and drinking and which medicines to take or hold, including blood thinners. Bring a list of your medicines and someone to drive you home when you leave.

Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

[Resource Headline]

[Optional Sub-Heading]

[Brief description of the resource]

[Resource Download/Access][Optional Secondary CTA]

What to Expect

During the Procedure

You receive general anesthesia and sleep through the procedure. The cardiologist guides a catheter, a thin flexible tube, through a vein in the groin to the upper left chamber of the heart, and uses ultrasound pictures, usually taken through the throat, to place the implant across the opening of the pouch. The team checks that the implant is seated before releasing it. The procedure usually takes about an hour.

After the Procedure

Most people stay in the hospital overnight. Nurses check the catheter site in your groin and your heart rhythm, and you lie flat for a few hours while the site seals.

Recovery

You will take blood-thinning medicine for a period after the implant while the heart tissue covers it, followed by a lighter medicine such as aspirin, and the exact plan is your cardiologist's. You will have a follow-up ultrasound or CT scan about six weeks after the procedure to check that the pouch is sealed. Most people are back to usual activities within a few days to a week. A chaplain and spiritual care are available to you and your family at any Baptist Health hospital if you want them.

Call 911 for signs of a stroke, chest pain, sudden shortness of breath, fainting, bleeding where the catheter went in that does not stop after ten minutes of firm pressure, a lump there that is growing fast, or a leg that turns cold, pale or numb. Call your care team the same day for a small amount of oozing or bruising that is not growing, redness or drainage at the site, a fever, or pain at the site that is getting worse.

Risks and Complications

Your team will go through your own risks before you agree. The main ones are:

  • bleeding or bruising where the catheter went in, and injury to a blood vessel;
  • fluid collecting around the heart, which is uncommon and treated promptly by the same team;
  • an implant that moves out of position;
  • a small clot forming on the implant, which is why follow-up imaging is done;
  • stroke, which is rare around the time of the procedure.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will I be able to stop my blood thinner?

For many people, yes, after the follow-up scan shows the pouch is sealed. Your cardiologist decides when. Closure lowers stroke risk from the appendage, so your team will keep an eye on your other risks.

Does closure treat the irregular heartbeat?

No. It lowers the risk of stroke. If you need the rhythm treated, your cardiologist may suggest cardioversion or cardiac catheter ablation.

Is it the same as open-heart surgery?

No. The implant goes in through a vein in the groin, and the chest is not opened.

Who decides if I am a candidate?

Your cardiologist and the structural heart and electrophysiology teams review your history and imaging together.

Will I feel the implant?

No. The implant is small and lies inside the heart, where it cannot be felt, and over the following weeks heart tissue grows over it. Most people notice nothing once the catheter site has healed.

Who Provides It and Where

Left atrial appendage closure is performed by Baptist Health's heart rhythm specialists (electrophysiologists) and by the structural heart team, which Stephen Bakir, MD, directs. Start with the practice that follows your heart rhythm, Baptist Health Cardiovascular Associates, which books through baptisthealthal.com/cva, or Heart South Cardiovascular Group, which books through heartsouthpc.com. Hospitals with a heart rhythm lab include Baptist Health Brookwood Hospital, Baptist Health Princeton Hospital and Baptist Health Shelby Hospital.

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Comprehensive Care

Related Service Lines
Heart and Vascular Care

Structural heart and rhythm cardiologists place the implant and follow you with imaging.

Learn More About Heart and Vascular Care
Neuroscience

Closure lowers the risk of stroke from AFib for people who cannot stay on blood thinners.

Learn More About Neuroscience
Conditions
Atrial fibrillation

Atrial fibrillation, or AFib, is the most common heart rhythm problem: the upper chambers beat in a fast, irregular pattern....

Learn More About Atrial fibrillation
Heart valve disease

Heart valve disease means one or more of the heart's four valves does not open or close as it should. Many people are...

Learn More About Heart valve disease
Treatments
Anticoagulation therapy and monitoring

Anticoagulants, often called blood thinners, lower the chance that a dangerous clot forms. If you take warfarin (Coumadin),...

Learn More About Anticoagulation therapy and monitoring
Echocardiogram

A painless ultrasound of your heart. Sound waves make a moving picture that shows the size and thickness of your heart, how...

Learn More About Echocardiogram
Cardioversion

Cardioversion resets a heart that is beating too fast or out of rhythm, most often in atrial fibrillation. You are given...

Learn More About Cardioversion
Cardiac catheter ablation

Cardiac catheter ablation treats an abnormal heart rhythm from inside the heart. Thin tubes guided through a vein find the...

Learn More About Cardiac catheter ablation
Transcatheter aortic valve replacement

Transcatheter aortic valve replacement, or TAVR, gives you a new aortic valve through a thin tube placed in an artery,...

Learn More About Transcatheter aortic valve replacement
Transcatheter mitral valve repair

Transcatheter mitral valve repair fixes a leaking mitral valve with a small clip placed through a vein in the leg, without...

Learn More About Transcatheter mitral valve repair

References

Talk With a Specialist

A first consultation or a second opinion starts with the practice that performs the procedure.

Find a Cardiologist

Aortic Valve Repair or Replacement

Aortic valve surgery replaces, or in some cases repairs, the valve that sends blood from your heart to the rest of your body. It relieves breathlessness, chest pressure and fainting caused by a narrowed or leaking valve.

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  • Nobody plans a NICU stay: a baby comes to one from the delivery room or by transfer between hospitals, so a button to find one serves no reader.
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MEASUREDRelated services are single service lines, in the designer's Services tab

Related services render as the Services tab of the designer's tabs module, as he drew them: six cards on a line page, each one service line on the ruled list, never two specialties under one name, each with one sentence on how that line joins a newborn's care.

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Pills are about 2.4 times their label tall, regular weight, with no border on solid pills; the two hero pills are equal width across the paragraph, each led by an ink icon chosen from its label. The facility hero's pills carry no icon.

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RESEARCHBreadcrumbs show a page's place in the site; a back link and the line card give the way back

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The aortic valve is the heart's main exit door. Each time the heart beats, it opens to let blood out to the body and closes to keep it from flowing back. When it narrows or leaks, the heart strains, and over time you may feel breathless, dizzy or tired, or have pressure in your chest. When medicine is no longer enough, an operation on the valve can relieve those symptoms. Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, performs aortic valve surgery at its Birmingham-area heart hospitals.

This page explains who needs the operation, what the day looks like, which valves are used and how recovery goes. If a catheter-based option may suit you, read transcatheter aortic valve replacement as well.

Valve surgery is usually a decision you make with your Heart Team over several visits. You will meet the surgeon, go over your tests together and talk through the valve choices, so you know what to expect before the day comes.

What Is Aortic Valve Repair or Replacement?

Aortic valve surgery corrects a valve that is narrowed (stenosis) or leaking (regurgitation). In replacement, the surgeon removes the damaged valve and sews in a new one. This is the more common operation on the aortic valve. In repair, the surgeon reshapes or reinforces your own valve so it closes properly. Repair is possible for some leaking valves, and your surgeon will tell you whether yours qualifies.

Kinds of Aortic Valve Replacement

There are two kinds of replacement valve. A mechanical valve is made of durable materials and can last a lifetime, but you take a blood thinner called warfarin every day for the rest of your life. A tissue valve is made from animal or human tissue, usually does not require long-term warfarin, and typically lasts 10 to 20 years before it may need replacing. Your age, lifestyle and wishes shape which one suits you.

Why Aortic Valve Repair or Replacement Is Performed

Surgery is recommended for severe aortic valve disease, usually when it causes symptoms or when the heart is beginning to enlarge or weaken even with few symptoms. See heart valve disease for how it is found and followed.

Who Is a Candidate

You may be a candidate if:

  • you have severe aortic stenosis or regurgitation with breathlessness, chest pain, fainting or heart failure;
  • your heart is enlarging or weakening because of the valve, even if you feel few symptoms;
  • a catheter-based valve replacement is not the right fit for your anatomy or health, or you need another heart operation at the same time.

Your Heart Team reviews your case and talks through the choices with you.

How to Prepare

Expect an echocardiogram, often a cardiac catheterization and other tests. Your team will tell you when to stop eating and drinking, which medicines to take or hold, and when to arrive. Bring a family member or friend to hear the plan with you, and a list of your medicines.

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What to Expect

During the Procedure

You receive general anesthesia and sleep through the operation. A heart-lung machine takes over the work of the heart and lungs while the surgeon works on the valve. The operation usually lasts three to five hours.

After the Procedure

Afterward you wake in the cardiac intensive care unit, where nurses watch your heart and breathing around the clock. Most people stay in the hospital about four to seven days, including time in intensive care.

Recovery

Full recovery usually takes several weeks, often six to eight. Your surgeon will give you activity limits, such as no heavy lifting or driving while the breastbone heals. If you have a mechanical valve, your team will start warfarin and check your blood often; see anticoagulation therapy and monitoring.

Cardiac rehabilitation helps you rebuild strength and confidence after valve surgery. It is a supervised program of 36 sessions, offered at Baptist Health Shelby Hospital and Baptist Health Princeton Hospital, and it usually starts about a month after your surgeon and cardiologist clear you. A chaplain and spiritual care are available to you and your family at any Baptist Health hospital if you want them.

Risks and Complications

Open-heart surgery is a major operation, and your surgeon will go through your own risks with you before you agree. The main ones are:

  • bleeding, which can need a return to the operating room;
  • infection, in the chest incision or the valve;
  • an irregular heartbeat, usually temporary, or a slow heartbeat that needs a pacemaker;
  • stroke or a blood clot, which is why blood thinners are part of the plan;
  • kidney, lung or other organ strain in people who are already ill.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I know whether I need repair or replacement?

Your surgeon looks at the shape of your valve on imaging and, in the operating room, at the valve itself. Repair is an option for some leaking valves. Replacement is the usual operation for a narrowed valve.

Should I choose a mechanical valve or a tissue valve?

Mechanical valves last longest and require warfarin for life. Tissue valves usually avoid long-term warfarin and may need replacement later. Younger people more often choose mechanical, and older people tissue. Your surgeon will talk through your case.

What is the difference between open surgery and TAVR?

Open surgery replaces the valve directly through an opened chest. TAVR places a new valve through a catheter. Both are proven treatments, and your Heart Team recommends the one that fits your age, valve and health.

When can I drive and go back to work?

Driving usually waits several weeks, until your surgeon clears you. Return to work depends on your job. Your surgeon will give you a date.

Will I need a blood thinner after surgery?

With a mechanical valve, yes: warfarin every day for life, with regular blood checks. With a tissue valve, many people take a blood thinner or aspirin for a period after surgery, as your team directs. Your surgeon explains the plan for your valve before you choose.

Who Provides It and Where

Aortic valve surgery is performed by Baptist Health's cardiac surgery team, which includes Andrew Papoy, MD, at Baptist Health Brookwood Hospital and Baptist Health Princeton Hospital. Referral and follow-up are through Baptist Health Cardiovascular Associates, which books through baptisthealthal.com/cva. The Baptist Health Valve Clinic, 2022 Brookwood Medical Center Drive, MOB B, Suite 210, Birmingham, AL 35209, (205) 877-2901, is where a progressing valve problem is referred for evaluation.

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Comprehensive Care

Related Service Lines
Heart and Vascular Care

Cardiac surgeons repair or replace the aortic valve, and cardiologists follow the new valve for years.

Learn More About Heart and Vascular Care
Conditions
Heart valve disease

Heart valve disease means one or more of the heart's four valves does not open or close as it should. Many people are...

Learn More About Heart valve disease
Treatments
Transcatheter aortic valve replacement

Transcatheter aortic valve replacement, or TAVR, gives you a new aortic valve through a thin tube placed in an artery,...

Learn More About Transcatheter aortic valve replacement
Echocardiogram

A painless ultrasound of your heart. Sound waves make a moving picture that shows the size and thickness of your heart, how...

Learn More About Echocardiogram
Cardiac catheterization

Cardiac catheterization uses a thin, flexible tube guided through a blood vessel to your heart. It shows your doctor how...

Learn More About Cardiac catheterization
Anticoagulation therapy and monitoring

Anticoagulants, often called blood thinners, lower the chance that a dangerous clot forms. If you take warfarin (Coumadin),...

Learn More About Anticoagulation therapy and monitoring
Cardiac rehabilitation

A medically supervised program of exercise, education and support that helps you rebuild strength after a heart attack, a...

Learn More About Cardiac rehabilitation
Transcatheter mitral valve repair

Transcatheter mitral valve repair fixes a leaking mitral valve with a small clip placed through a vein in the leg, without...

Learn More About Transcatheter mitral valve repair

References

Talk With a Specialist

A first consultation or a second opinion starts with the practice that performs the procedure.

Find a Cardiologist

Mitral Valve Repair or Replacement

Mitral valve surgery repairs a leaking or narrowed valve between the upper and lower left chambers of your heart, or replaces it when repair is not possible. Your surgeon chooses the best option for your valve and your health.

Medically Reviewed Content
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Research and Evidence for This Page

This page's buttons: See Cardiovascular Associates. Read by someone weighing a procedure: the practice that performs it when only one does, otherwise the doctor finder for a first consultation or a second opinion.
RULINGEvery page's buttons are chosen for the reader who lands on it

A page shows zero, one or two buttons, each reasoned from the moment its reader is in. Leads go where a real decision exists (planning a birth, a diagnosis in pregnancy, a failed screen, a follow-up specialist, a pediatrician for a healthy newborn). A page read by a parent whose baby is in a NICU now offers the page's own help and the support every NICU family gets, never a sales button. No button anywhere asks anyone to choose a NICU.

  • Nobody plans a NICU stay: a baby comes to one from the delivery room or by transfer between hospitals, so a button to find one serves no reader.
  • A baby in a NICU already has its doctors at the bedside, and most families name a pediatrician before discharge, so a pediatrician button on an apnea page sells to nobody.
  • Serving the business and serving the parent are meant to agree: where no honest lead exists, help that keeps the family with Orlando Health is the business value.
  • Two slots are a ceiling, never a quota: a filler button beside a page's one real action comes off.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDRelated services are single service lines, in the designer's Services tab

Related services render as the Services tab of the designer's tabs module, as he drew them: six cards on a line page, each one service line on the ruled list, never two specialties under one name, each with one sentence on how that line joins a newborn's care.

  • The designer's service line and location frames show Services, Conditions and Treatments as three tabs, the Services tab holding six single-line cards with a sentence each.
  • The ruled list of children's service lines carries pediatric hematology and pediatric oncology, pulmonology and sleep medicine, neurology and neurosurgery as separate lines; a combined name matches no page that will exist.
  • A gate refuses any service card whose name is not a ruled line.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDThe page is set in Lufga, the typeface Orlando Health uses, at its three weights

Every page uses Lufga, loaded from orlandohealth.com, at 400, 500 and 700 only. Headings 700, the hero paragraph 500, body and buttons 400.

  • Read on orlandohealth.com, 2026-10-20: the site loads Lufga in three files, Regular 400, Medium 500 and Bold 700, and sets its headings at 700.
  • The designer's frames are set in the same face; an earlier build used a stand-in, which is why its weights read differently beside his frames.

Sources

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDButtons are the designer's slim pills, with an icon in the hero

Pills are about 2.4 times their label tall, regular weight, with no border on solid pills; the two hero pills are equal width across the paragraph, each led by an ink icon chosen from its label. The facility hero's pills carry no icon.

  • Measured across the designer's frames: every pill is 2.3 to 2.5 times its label tall, and the hero pills carry a calendar or a phone before the label.
  • A gate checks every rendered pill against these proportions.

Decided 2026-10-20

RESEARCHBreadcrumbs show a page's place in the site; a back link and the line card give the way back

A library page's breadcrumbs follow its address (Home, Health Library, Conditions, the page), because one condition page serves every line that treats it. The way back to the line comes from two other places: the first card in the page's Services tab is the line itself, always; and a visitor who arrived from a line, unit, team or program page also sees a Back link at the right of the crumb bar, naming that page.

  • Breadcrumbs should show a page's place in the site's hierarchy, never the visitor's history; history trails grow long and repetitive and do nothing for a visitor who arrives from search.
  • A page with more than one parent shows one canonical trail for everyone, which keeps the page's signal to search engines consistent.
  • A separate link back to where the visitor came from is a common pattern (a store's Back to Results) and leaves the canonical trail untouched.
  • Tested in the demo: a parent reading condition pages could not find the way back to the Neonatal Care page.

Sources

Decided 2026-10-21

The mitral valve lies between the two left chambers of the heart and keeps blood moving one way, from the lungs toward the body. When it leaks or narrows, you may feel breathless, tired or aware of an uneven heartbeat, and over time the heart can enlarge. If your cardiologist has said you need surgery on this valve, you likely have questions about what the operation involves and how long you will be away from your life. Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, performs mitral valve surgery at its Birmingham-area heart hospitals.

This page covers who needs the operation, what the day looks like, how repair and replacement differ and what recovery involves. If a catheter-based repair may suit you, read transcatheter mitral valve repair too.

Valve surgery is planned with your Heart Team over several visits. You will meet your surgeon, go over your heart pictures together and hear whether repair is likely for your valve.

What Is Mitral Valve Repair or Replacement?

In repair, the surgeon reshapes your own valve, often by trimming or supporting the flaps and tightening the ring around them, so that it closes properly. In replacement, the surgeon removes the valve and sews in a new one, either mechanical or tissue. The mitral valve is the valve most often repaired rather than replaced.

When repair is possible, it is usually preferred, because it keeps your own valve and your heart's natural structure. Repaired valves tend to last longer than tissue replacements, have a lower risk of infection and do not require lifelong blood thinners. Your surgeon decides after looking at your valve on imaging and, in the operating room, at the valve itself.

If replacement is needed, a mechanical valve is durable and may last a lifetime, but you take warfarin every day. A tissue valve usually avoids long-term warfarin and typically lasts 10 to 20 years before it may need replacing.

Why Mitral Valve Repair or Replacement Is Performed

Surgery is recommended for severe mitral valve disease, usually when it causes symptoms or when the heart is beginning to enlarge or weaken. See heart valve disease for how it is found and followed. Repair keeps your own valve and is preferred when it is possible; replacement is used when it is not.

Who Is a Candidate

You may be a candidate if:

  • you have a severe mitral leak or narrowing with breathlessness, chest pain or heart failure;
  • your heart is enlarging or weakening because of the valve, even if symptoms are mild;
  • more than one valve needs treatment at the same time;
  • a catheter-based repair is not suitable for your valve or your health.

Your Heart Team reviews your case and talks through the choices with you.

How to Prepare

Expect an echocardiogram, often an ultrasound taken through the throat, a cardiac catheterization and other tests. Your team will tell you when to stop eating and drinking, which medicines to take or hold and when to arrive. Bring someone to hear the plan with you, and a list of your medicines.

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[Resource Headline]

[Optional Sub-Heading]

[Brief description of the resource]

[Resource Download/Access][Optional Secondary CTA]

What to Expect

During the Procedure

You receive general anesthesia and sleep through the operation. A heart-lung machine keeps blood moving through your body while the surgeon works on the valve. Repair can take longer than replacement. Expect about three to six hours.

After the Procedure

Afterward you wake in the cardiac intensive care unit, where nurses watch your heart and breathing around the clock. Most people stay in the hospital several days, including time in intensive care, and need about four to eight weeks to recover fully.

Recovery

Many people notice better breathing and energy within weeks. Your surgeon will give you activity limits, such as no heavy lifting or driving while the breastbone heals. If you receive a mechanical valve, or if you have atrial fibrillation, you will take a blood thinner; see anticoagulation therapy and monitoring.

Cardiac rehabilitation helps you rebuild strength and confidence. It is a supervised program of 36 sessions, offered at Baptist Health Shelby Hospital and Baptist Health Princeton Hospital, and it usually starts about a month after your surgeon and cardiologist clear you. A chaplain and spiritual care are available to you and your family during your hospital stay if you want them.

Risks and Complications

Open-heart surgery is a major operation, and your surgeon will go through your own risks with you before you agree. The main ones are:

  • bleeding, which can need a return to the operating room;
  • infection, in the incision or on the valve;
  • an irregular heartbeat, usually temporary;
  • stroke or blood clots, which is why blood thinners are part of the plan;
  • a repair that needs adjusting later, or a valve that wears over the years;
  • kidney, lung or other organ strain in people who are already ill.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is repair better than replacement?

When repair is possible, it is generally preferred, and your surgeon will say whether your valve qualifies. When the valve is too damaged to repair, replacement gives a reliable result.

What is the difference between a mechanical valve and a tissue valve?

A mechanical valve can last a lifetime and requires warfarin every day. A tissue valve usually avoids long-term warfarin and typically lasts 10 to 20 years before it may need replacing.

Do I need surgery or a catheter repair?

It depends on the shape of your valve, why it leaks and your overall health. Your Heart Team looks at both options with you.

When can I drive and go back to work?

Driving usually waits several weeks, until your surgeon clears you. Return to work depends on your job, and your surgeon will give you a date.

How long does a repaired mitral valve last?

A successful repair often lasts many years, and for many people it lasts a lifetime. Some repairs need attention later, which is why you keep regular follow-up visits and echocardiograms after surgery.

Who Provides It and Where

Mitral valve surgery is performed by Baptist Health's cardiac surgery team, which includes Andrew Papoy, MD, at Baptist Health Brookwood Hospital and Baptist Health Princeton Hospital. Referral and follow-up are through Baptist Health Cardiovascular Associates, which books through baptisthealthal.com/cva. The Baptist Health Valve Clinic, 2022 Brookwood Medical Center Drive, MOB B, Suite 210, Birmingham, AL 35209, (205) 877-2901, is where a progressing valve problem is referred for evaluation.

Type a city or zip code
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Type a doctor's first or last name
Female Male
View Doctors with Online Scheduling
[n] doctors foundMany doctors have multiple practice locations. View the doctor's profile for a complete list of their locationsSort By: A to Z
[Doctor Name 1], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
[Doctor Name 2], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
[Doctor Name 3], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
123›

Comprehensive Care

Related Service Lines
Heart and Vascular Care

Cardiac surgeons repair or replace the mitral valve when a leak or narrowing strains the heart.

Learn More About Heart and Vascular Care
Conditions
Heart valve disease

Heart valve disease means one or more of the heart's four valves does not open or close as it should. Many people are...

Learn More About Heart valve disease
Treatments
Transcatheter mitral valve repair

Transcatheter mitral valve repair fixes a leaking mitral valve with a small clip placed through a vein in the leg, without...

Learn More About Transcatheter mitral valve repair
Echocardiogram

A painless ultrasound of your heart. Sound waves make a moving picture that shows the size and thickness of your heart, how...

Learn More About Echocardiogram
Cardiac catheterization

Cardiac catheterization uses a thin, flexible tube guided through a blood vessel to your heart. It shows your doctor how...

Learn More About Cardiac catheterization
Anticoagulation therapy and monitoring

Anticoagulants, often called blood thinners, lower the chance that a dangerous clot forms. If you take warfarin (Coumadin),...

Learn More About Anticoagulation therapy and monitoring
Cardiac rehabilitation

A medically supervised program of exercise, education and support that helps you rebuild strength after a heart attack, a...

Learn More About Cardiac rehabilitation
Transcatheter aortic valve replacement

Transcatheter aortic valve replacement, or TAVR, gives you a new aortic valve through a thin tube placed in an artery,...

Learn More About Transcatheter aortic valve replacement

References

Talk With a Specialist

A first consultation or a second opinion starts with the practice that performs the procedure.

Find a Cardiologist

Peripheral Artery Angioplasty and Stenting

Angioplasty and stenting open a narrowed artery in the leg or elsewhere outside the heart, using a thin tube and a tiny balloon. It can ease leg pain when walking and helps blood reach tissue that needs it. Most people go home the same day.

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Research and Evidence for This Page

This page's buttons: Find a Cardiologist. Read by someone weighing a procedure: the practice that performs it when only one does, otherwise the doctor finder for a first consultation or a second opinion.
RULINGEvery page's buttons are chosen for the reader who lands on it

A page shows zero, one or two buttons, each reasoned from the moment its reader is in. Leads go where a real decision exists (planning a birth, a diagnosis in pregnancy, a failed screen, a follow-up specialist, a pediatrician for a healthy newborn). A page read by a parent whose baby is in a NICU now offers the page's own help and the support every NICU family gets, never a sales button. No button anywhere asks anyone to choose a NICU.

  • Nobody plans a NICU stay: a baby comes to one from the delivery room or by transfer between hospitals, so a button to find one serves no reader.
  • A baby in a NICU already has its doctors at the bedside, and most families name a pediatrician before discharge, so a pediatrician button on an apnea page sells to nobody.
  • Serving the business and serving the parent are meant to agree: where no honest lead exists, help that keeps the family with Orlando Health is the business value.
  • Two slots are a ceiling, never a quota: a filler button beside a page's one real action comes off.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDRelated services are single service lines, in the designer's Services tab

Related services render as the Services tab of the designer's tabs module, as he drew them: six cards on a line page, each one service line on the ruled list, never two specialties under one name, each with one sentence on how that line joins a newborn's care.

  • The designer's service line and location frames show Services, Conditions and Treatments as three tabs, the Services tab holding six single-line cards with a sentence each.
  • The ruled list of children's service lines carries pediatric hematology and pediatric oncology, pulmonology and sleep medicine, neurology and neurosurgery as separate lines; a combined name matches no page that will exist.
  • A gate refuses any service card whose name is not a ruled line.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDThe page is set in Lufga, the typeface Orlando Health uses, at its three weights

Every page uses Lufga, loaded from orlandohealth.com, at 400, 500 and 700 only. Headings 700, the hero paragraph 500, body and buttons 400.

  • Read on orlandohealth.com, 2026-10-20: the site loads Lufga in three files, Regular 400, Medium 500 and Bold 700, and sets its headings at 700.
  • The designer's frames are set in the same face; an earlier build used a stand-in, which is why its weights read differently beside his frames.

Sources

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDButtons are the designer's slim pills, with an icon in the hero

Pills are about 2.4 times their label tall, regular weight, with no border on solid pills; the two hero pills are equal width across the paragraph, each led by an ink icon chosen from its label. The facility hero's pills carry no icon.

  • Measured across the designer's frames: every pill is 2.3 to 2.5 times its label tall, and the hero pills carry a calendar or a phone before the label.
  • A gate checks every rendered pill against these proportions.

Decided 2026-10-20

RESEARCHBreadcrumbs show a page's place in the site; a back link and the line card give the way back

A library page's breadcrumbs follow its address (Home, Health Library, Conditions, the page), because one condition page serves every line that treats it. The way back to the line comes from two other places: the first card in the page's Services tab is the line itself, always; and a visitor who arrived from a line, unit, team or program page also sees a Back link at the right of the crumb bar, naming that page.

  • Breadcrumbs should show a page's place in the site's hierarchy, never the visitor's history; history trails grow long and repetitive and do nothing for a visitor who arrives from search.
  • A page with more than one parent shows one canonical trail for everyone, which keeps the page's signal to search engines consistent.
  • A separate link back to where the visitor came from is a common pattern (a store's Back to Results) and leaves the canonical trail untouched.
  • Tested in the demo: a parent reading condition pages could not find the way back to the Neonatal Care page.

Sources

Decided 2026-10-21

If walking leaves your calves cramping, your feet feel cold, or a sore on your foot will not heal, a narrowed artery may be the reason. This is called peripheral artery disease, or PAD, and many people live with it for years before anyone names it. Angioplasty and stenting reopen the artery from inside, through a small puncture rather than a large incision. Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, treats PAD with these procedures through its interventional cardiologists, who also help you with the medicine, exercise and habits that keep arteries open.

This page covers who benefits, how to prepare, what happens during the procedure, and what recovery looks like.

The procedure is usually planned after an ultrasound, and often a scan of the arteries, shows where the narrowing is; sometimes the angiography that confirms it and the treatment happen at the same visit. You will go over those pictures with your cardiologist and talk through what opening the artery can do for your walking, your pain or a wound.

What Is Peripheral Artery Angioplasty and Stenting?

Peripheral arteries bring blood to the legs, arms, kidneys and other parts of the body outside the heart. Plaque, a build-up of fat and calcium, can narrow them. In angioplasty, a cardiologist guides a catheter, a thin flexible tube with a tiny balloon at its tip, to the narrowed spot and inflates the balloon to widen the artery. Some balloons are coated with medicine that helps keep the artery open. In stenting, a small mesh tube, called a stent, is left in the artery to hold it open.

When plaque is heavy or hardened, the cardiologist may first remove it with a device on the catheter, a step called atherectomy, before opening the artery. This differs from coronary angioplasty, which opens arteries of the heart; see coronary angioplasty and stents.

Why Peripheral Artery Angioplasty and Stenting Are Performed

Many people with PAD first try walking programs, medicines that protect the arteries and a stop to smoking. A procedure is recommended when those are not enough or when the blockage threatens the leg. See peripheral artery disease for symptoms and causes.

Who Is a Candidate

You may be a candidate if you:

  • have leg pain with walking that limits your life despite treatment;
  • have pain at rest, or a wound on the foot or leg that is slow to heal;
  • have a blockage that testing shows can be opened with a catheter;
  • have narrowing in other arteries, such as the artery to a kidney, where a stent is an option.

Your cardiologist will review your tests with you and recommend a plan.

How to Prepare

Your first tests are painless: a blood pressure check at the ankle and arm and an ultrasound of the arteries, such as a Doppler ultrasound. A vascular angiography shows exactly where the blockage is, and it may be performed at the same visit as the treatment. Your team will tell you when to stop eating and drinking and which medicines to take or hold, including blood thinners and diabetes medicines. Plan for someone to drive you home.

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What to Expect

During the Procedure

You stay awake but relaxed with numbing medicine at the entry spot and, if needed, medicine to help you rest. The cardiologist places a small tube into an artery, usually in the groin, and sometimes in the arm. Dye and X-ray pictures guide the catheter to the blockage. The cardiologist opens the artery with the balloon, places a stent if it is needed and checks the blood flow before finishing. Ultrasound from inside the artery can help size the stent. The procedure usually takes one to two hours.

After the Procedure

You rest for a few hours while nurses check the entry spot and the pulses in your leg, keeping the leg or arm still so the artery can seal. Most people go home the same day, and some stay overnight.

Recovery

Most return to light activity within a few days. Walking is encouraged as you feel able, because regular walking improves circulation in the legs. You will take medicines such as aspirin or another antiplatelet drug to keep the stent open, and you will have follow-up ultrasound tests. If you smoke, stopping is the most useful thing you can do for your arteries, and your team can help. Your team will tell you what to watch for, such as a cold foot, new pain or bleeding at the entry spot.

Risks and Complications

Your cardiologist will go through your own risks before you agree. The main ones are:

  • bleeding, bruising or a swelling called a pseudoaneurysm where the tube entered;
  • injury to a blood vessel;
  • the artery narrowing again over time, which is why follow-up tests are scheduled;
  • a blood clot at the treated spot;
  • kidney strain or an allergic reaction from the dye;
  • rarely, a blockage or injury that calls for a repair operation.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can PAD be treated without a procedure?

Often, yes. Walking programs, medicines and healthy habits help many people. A procedure is for those who need more.

Will the artery stay open?

Many people have lasting benefit, and arteries can narrow again, especially if risk factors such as smoking, diabetes or high cholesterol are not controlled. Follow-up tests catch narrowing early.

Is there a free screening?

Heart South Cardiovascular Group offers a free vascular screening. See its page for how to request one.

Which specialist will treat me?

Interventional cardiologists at Baptist Health treat PAD with catheter procedures. The doctor finder on this site lists them.

Can the artery narrow again?

It can. Over months or years some treated arteries narrow again, which is why follow-up ultrasound tests are scheduled. Taking your medicines, walking and not smoking help keep the artery open, and a narrowed spot can often be treated again.

Who Provides It and Where

Peripheral artery angioplasty and stenting are provided by interventional cardiologists of Baptist Health Cardiovascular Associates, which books through baptisthealthal.com/cva, and by Heart South Cardiovascular Group, whose Heart South Vascular Institute outpatient lab is at 1022 1st Street North, Alabaster, AL 35007 and books through heartsouthpc.com. Treatment is planned after your first visit and testing.

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[n] doctors foundMany doctors have multiple practice locations. View the doctor's profile for a complete list of their locationsSort By: A to Z
[Doctor Name 1], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group Member[Location]
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[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
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[Address Line]
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123›

Comprehensive Care

Related Service Lines
Heart and Vascular Care

Interventional cardiologists open narrowed leg arteries from the inside to ease pain and heal wounds.

Learn More About Heart and Vascular Care
Endocrinology and Diabetes

Good diabetes control helps a treated leg artery stay open and foot wounds heal.

Learn More About Endocrinology and Diabetes
Conditions
Peripheral artery disease

Peripheral artery disease means the arteries that bring blood to your legs have narrowed, so your legs get less blood than...

Learn More About Peripheral artery disease
Treatments
Coronary angioplasty and stents

Coronary angioplasty opens a narrowed or blocked heart artery with a tiny balloon, and a stent, a small mesh tube, keeps it...

Learn More About Coronary angioplasty and stents
Doppler ultrasound

A Doppler ultrasound uses sound waves to show how blood moves through the veins and arteries in your arms, legs and neck. It...

Learn More About Doppler ultrasound
Vascular angiography

Vascular angiography is an X-ray test that shows the inside of your blood vessels. Your care team injects contrast dye,...

Learn More About Vascular angiography
Endovenous ablation

Endovenous ablation closes a leaking varicose vein from the inside. Guided by ultrasound, your doctor places a thin catheter...

Learn More About Endovenous ablation
Sclerotherapy for varicose veins

Sclerotherapy treats spider veins and varicose veins with a small injection. A medicine goes into the affected vein, the...

Learn More About Sclerotherapy for varicose veins
Phlebectomy

Phlebectomy removes varicose veins through tiny punctures or small cuts in the skin. Numbing medicine keeps the area free of...

Learn More About Phlebectomy

References

Talk With a Specialist

A first consultation or a second opinion starts with the practice that performs the procedure.

Find a Cardiologist

Cardiac Rehabilitation

A medically supervised program of exercise, education and support that helps you rebuild strength after a heart attack, a stent, heart surgery or a heart failure diagnosis. Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, offers cardiac rehabilitation at Princeton, Shelby and Calhoun hospitals. Most programs run 36 sessions.

Medically Reviewed Content
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Research and Evidence for This Page

This page's buttons: Ask About Cardiac Rehab. Care that continues: the program or practice that runs it.
RULINGEvery page's buttons are chosen for the reader who lands on it

A page shows zero, one or two buttons, each reasoned from the moment its reader is in. Leads go where a real decision exists (planning a birth, a diagnosis in pregnancy, a failed screen, a follow-up specialist, a pediatrician for a healthy newborn). A page read by a parent whose baby is in a NICU now offers the page's own help and the support every NICU family gets, never a sales button. No button anywhere asks anyone to choose a NICU.

  • Nobody plans a NICU stay: a baby comes to one from the delivery room or by transfer between hospitals, so a button to find one serves no reader.
  • A baby in a NICU already has its doctors at the bedside, and most families name a pediatrician before discharge, so a pediatrician button on an apnea page sells to nobody.
  • Serving the business and serving the parent are meant to agree: where no honest lead exists, help that keeps the family with Orlando Health is the business value.
  • Two slots are a ceiling, never a quota: a filler button beside a page's one real action comes off.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDRelated services are single service lines, in the designer's Services tab

Related services render as the Services tab of the designer's tabs module, as he drew them: six cards on a line page, each one service line on the ruled list, never two specialties under one name, each with one sentence on how that line joins a newborn's care.

  • The designer's service line and location frames show Services, Conditions and Treatments as three tabs, the Services tab holding six single-line cards with a sentence each.
  • The ruled list of children's service lines carries pediatric hematology and pediatric oncology, pulmonology and sleep medicine, neurology and neurosurgery as separate lines; a combined name matches no page that will exist.
  • A gate refuses any service card whose name is not a ruled line.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDThe page is set in Lufga, the typeface Orlando Health uses, at its three weights

Every page uses Lufga, loaded from orlandohealth.com, at 400, 500 and 700 only. Headings 700, the hero paragraph 500, body and buttons 400.

  • Read on orlandohealth.com, 2026-10-20: the site loads Lufga in three files, Regular 400, Medium 500 and Bold 700, and sets its headings at 700.
  • The designer's frames are set in the same face; an earlier build used a stand-in, which is why its weights read differently beside his frames.

Sources

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDButtons are the designer's slim pills, with an icon in the hero

Pills are about 2.4 times their label tall, regular weight, with no border on solid pills; the two hero pills are equal width across the paragraph, each led by an ink icon chosen from its label. The facility hero's pills carry no icon.

  • Measured across the designer's frames: every pill is 2.3 to 2.5 times its label tall, and the hero pills carry a calendar or a phone before the label.
  • A gate checks every rendered pill against these proportions.

Decided 2026-10-20

RESEARCHBreadcrumbs show a page's place in the site; a back link and the line card give the way back

A library page's breadcrumbs follow its address (Home, Health Library, Conditions, the page), because one condition page serves every line that treats it. The way back to the line comes from two other places: the first card in the page's Services tab is the line itself, always; and a visitor who arrived from a line, unit, team or program page also sees a Back link at the right of the crumb bar, naming that page.

  • Breadcrumbs should show a page's place in the site's hierarchy, never the visitor's history; history trails grow long and repetitive and do nothing for a visitor who arrives from search.
  • A page with more than one parent shows one canonical trail for everyone, which keeps the page's signal to search engines consistent.
  • A separate link back to where the visitor came from is a common pattern (a store's Back to Results) and leaves the canonical trail untouched.
  • Tested in the demo: a parent reading condition pages could not find the way back to the Neonatal Care page.

Sources

Decided 2026-10-21

You have had a heart event or a procedure, and the hospital part is over. Now comes a different question: how do you get back to the walk, the garden, the grandchildren, and trust your heart while you do it? Cardiac rehabilitation is the answer most cardiologists give, and it is built for exactly this moment.

Cardiac rehab is a program of monitored exercise, teaching about heart health and support for the worry that often follows a heart event. A team of nurses and exercise specialists watches your heart rate and blood pressure as you exercise, and raises your effort as you get stronger. Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, offers it at Baptist Health Princeton Hospital, Baptist Health Shelby Hospital and Baptist Health Calhoun Hospital.

This page covers how the program works, who it is for, how to start, what sessions look like, and the risks.

What Is Cardiac Rehabilitation and How Does It Work?

Cardiac rehabilitation, often called cardiac rehab, is a supervised program that helps your heart and body recover after a heart problem. It has three parts that work together: exercise that is tailored to you and watched by a nurse or exercise specialist, education about food, medicines, stress and quitting tobacco, and support for how you feel as well as how you move.

Programs are usually run by nurses and exercise physiologists, often with a dietitian. At Baptist Health Calhoun Hospital, registered nurses trained and certified in cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation provide care, and a cardiac rehab nurse or exercise physiologist does the first assessment.

What Cardiac Rehabilitation Is Used For

Cardiac rehab lowers the chance of another heart event, helps you feel stronger and more confident, and improves how long and how well people live after heart disease.

Who Is Referred

Your doctor may refer you for cardiac rehab if you have had:

Calhoun's program also works with people who have lung disease.

Before You Start

You begin with a referral from your cardiologist or surgeon. Once they clear you, the program contacts you to set a start date. At Baptist Health, people typically start about a month after that clearance.

Before your first visit:

  • Bring your medicine list and your discharge papers.
  • Wear loose clothes and walking shoes.
  • Tell the team about any chest pain, dizziness or swelling since you left the hospital.
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[Brief description of the resource]

[Resource Download/Access][Optional Secondary CTA]

What to Expect

Your first visit. A nurse or exercise specialist reviews your history, checks your blood pressure and heart rhythm, and sets goals with you.

Your sessions. You exercise on equipment such as treadmills and bikes while the team watches your heart rate, rhythm and blood pressure. Each session also includes teaching about heart-healthy eating, medicines and stress. The team raises your effort a little at a time and adjusts your plan as you improve.

How many sessions. The program is 36 sessions. How many weeks that takes depends on how often you come.

Calhoun's three phases. Baptist Health Calhoun Hospital's program follows three phases:

  1. Phase I, in the hospital. Recovery and rehab begin before you go home, when a nurse or exercise physiologist assesses your risk factors, what you need to learn and how active you are.
  2. Phase II, toward recovery. A physician-supervised exercise program, with your heart watched on a monitor, strengthens your heart and lungs and teaches the habits that protect your heart.
  3. Phase III, outpatient follow-up. As an outpatient, you keep checking in with a trained team that follows your progress.

Calhoun's rehab center also offers strength and flexibility training, and an aquatic therapy pool.

At Princeton and Shelby, the program is the supervised exercise and education sessions above. Neither offers a separate maintenance phase, and neither has a home or remote option today.

After the Program

Cardiac rehab is the recovery. Most people feel stronger with each week, and many say the biggest change is confidence. By the end, the goal is that you know your limits, your medicines and your habits well enough to keep going on your own. Your cardiologist stays your lead doctor.

Side Effects and Risks

Cardiac rehab is safe for people your doctor has cleared, and the monitoring is there to catch problems early. As with any exercise, you may have sore muscles at first. Rarely, exercise brings on chest pain, an irregular heartbeat or dizziness; the team stops the session and responds.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Cardiac Rehab Covered by Insurance?

Medicare and many private plans cover cardiac rehab for eligible diagnoses, usually up to 36 sessions. Call your plan or the program to confirm your benefit and any copay.

Can I Do It at Home?

Not at Baptist Health today. Programs run in person, where the team can watch your heart as you exercise.

How Soon After My Heart Event Can I Start?

Most people start about a month after your surgeon and cardiologist clear you. Ask your cardiologist when you are cleared and who will call you.

What Should I Do If I Feel Chest Pain During a Session?

Tell the team at once. They are trained for it and will stop the session and care for you. Away from rehab, call 911 for chest pain that does not ease with rest, or with shortness of breath, sweating or fainting.

What if I miss a session?

Call the program to let them know. Missing an occasional session is common, and the team helps you pick up where you left off. Coming regularly is what builds strength and confidence, so tell the team if something keeps getting in the way.

Who Provides It and Where

Cardiac rehabilitation is offered at three Baptist Health hospitals. Call the program or ask your cardiologist to send the referral.

Your referral usually comes from a heart team such as Baptist Health Cardiovascular Associates, Heart South Cardiovascular Group or Baptist Health Medical Group Cardiology, Anniston.

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[n] doctors foundMany doctors have multiple practice locations. View the doctor's profile for a complete list of their locationsSort By: A to Z
[Doctor Name 1], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
[Doctor Name 2], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
[Doctor Name 3], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
123›

Comprehensive Care

Related Service Lines
Heart and Vascular Care

Cardiologists refer you to cardiac rehab after a heart attack, stent, heart surgery or heart failure.

Learn More About Heart and Vascular Care
Behavioral Health

Worry and low mood are common after a heart event, and rehab teams help you cope as you recover.

Learn More About Behavioral Health
Conditions
Coronary artery disease

Coronary artery disease means the arteries that feed your heart have narrowed over time. It is common, it is treated every...

Learn More About Coronary artery disease
Heart failure

Heart failure means the heart pumps with less force than your body needs. It does not mean the heart has stopped. Baptist...

Learn More About Heart failure
Heart attack

A heart attack happens when blood flow to part of the heart muscle is suddenly blocked. It is an emergency: call 911....

Learn More About Heart attack
Treatments
Coronary angioplasty and stents

Coronary angioplasty opens a narrowed or blocked heart artery with a tiny balloon, and a stent, a small mesh tube, keeps it...

Learn More About Coronary angioplasty and stents
Coronary artery bypass surgery

Coronary artery bypass surgery uses a healthy blood vessel from another part of your body to route blood around a blocked...

Learn More About Coronary artery bypass surgery
Transcatheter aortic valve replacement

Transcatheter aortic valve replacement, or TAVR, gives you a new aortic valve through a thin tube placed in an artery,...

Learn More About Transcatheter aortic valve replacement
Anticoagulation therapy and monitoring

Anticoagulants, often called blood thinners, lower the chance that a dangerous clot forms. If you take warfarin (Coumadin),...

Learn More About Anticoagulation therapy and monitoring

References

Ongoing Heart Care

Our practices and hospitals continue your care after a diagnosis or a procedure.

Find a Cardiologist

Echocardiogram

A painless ultrasound of your heart. Sound waves make a moving picture that shows the size and thickness of your heart, how well it pumps and how its four valves open and close. Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, offers echocardiograms at its hospitals and at heart practice offices across Alabama.

Medically Reviewed Content
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Research and Evidence for This Page

This page's buttons: Find a Cardiologist. Tests are ordered by a doctor and scheduled by the practice: the practice when only one does the test, otherwise the doctor finder, since a patient cannot book the test without an order.
RULINGEvery page's buttons are chosen for the reader who lands on it

A page shows zero, one or two buttons, each reasoned from the moment its reader is in. Leads go where a real decision exists (planning a birth, a diagnosis in pregnancy, a failed screen, a follow-up specialist, a pediatrician for a healthy newborn). A page read by a parent whose baby is in a NICU now offers the page's own help and the support every NICU family gets, never a sales button. No button anywhere asks anyone to choose a NICU.

  • Nobody plans a NICU stay: a baby comes to one from the delivery room or by transfer between hospitals, so a button to find one serves no reader.
  • A baby in a NICU already has its doctors at the bedside, and most families name a pediatrician before discharge, so a pediatrician button on an apnea page sells to nobody.
  • Serving the business and serving the parent are meant to agree: where no honest lead exists, help that keeps the family with Orlando Health is the business value.
  • Two slots are a ceiling, never a quota: a filler button beside a page's one real action comes off.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDRelated services are single service lines, in the designer's Services tab

Related services render as the Services tab of the designer's tabs module, as he drew them: six cards on a line page, each one service line on the ruled list, never two specialties under one name, each with one sentence on how that line joins a newborn's care.

  • The designer's service line and location frames show Services, Conditions and Treatments as three tabs, the Services tab holding six single-line cards with a sentence each.
  • The ruled list of children's service lines carries pediatric hematology and pediatric oncology, pulmonology and sleep medicine, neurology and neurosurgery as separate lines; a combined name matches no page that will exist.
  • A gate refuses any service card whose name is not a ruled line.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDThe page is set in Lufga, the typeface Orlando Health uses, at its three weights

Every page uses Lufga, loaded from orlandohealth.com, at 400, 500 and 700 only. Headings 700, the hero paragraph 500, body and buttons 400.

  • Read on orlandohealth.com, 2026-10-20: the site loads Lufga in three files, Regular 400, Medium 500 and Bold 700, and sets its headings at 700.
  • The designer's frames are set in the same face; an earlier build used a stand-in, which is why its weights read differently beside his frames.

Sources

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDButtons are the designer's slim pills, with an icon in the hero

Pills are about 2.4 times their label tall, regular weight, with no border on solid pills; the two hero pills are equal width across the paragraph, each led by an ink icon chosen from its label. The facility hero's pills carry no icon.

  • Measured across the designer's frames: every pill is 2.3 to 2.5 times its label tall, and the hero pills carry a calendar or a phone before the label.
  • A gate checks every rendered pill against these proportions.

Decided 2026-10-20

RESEARCHBreadcrumbs show a page's place in the site; a back link and the line card give the way back

A library page's breadcrumbs follow its address (Home, Health Library, Conditions, the page), because one condition page serves every line that treats it. The way back to the line comes from two other places: the first card in the page's Services tab is the line itself, always; and a visitor who arrived from a line, unit, team or program page also sees a Back link at the right of the crumb bar, naming that page.

  • Breadcrumbs should show a page's place in the site's hierarchy, never the visitor's history; history trails grow long and repetitive and do nothing for a visitor who arrives from search.
  • A page with more than one parent shows one canonical trail for everyone, which keeps the page's signal to search engines consistent.
  • A separate link back to where the visitor came from is a common pattern (a store's Back to Results) and leaves the canonical trail untouched.
  • Tested in the demo: a parent reading condition pages could not find the way back to the Neonatal Care page.

Sources

Decided 2026-10-21

Your doctor listened to your heart, or you had shortness of breath, swelling or a rhythm that did not feel right, and now an echocardiogram is on the schedule. It is one of the most common heart tests and one of the easiest. You lie on a table while a technician moves a small handheld device over your chest, and a moving picture of your heart appears on a screen.

Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, performs echocardiograms at its hospitals and at its heart practices in the Birmingham area and beyond. Your doctor reads the pictures and talks with you about what they show.

Most echocardiograms need no special preparation, and you can usually drive yourself home and go straight back to your day. This page covers why your doctor may order one, how to get ready, what happens during the test, its risks, and how to understand your results.

What Is an Echocardiogram?

An echocardiogram, often called an echo, uses sound waves to make a moving image of your heart on a video screen. Heart South Cardiovascular Group describes it as a test that lets your doctor study the thickness, size and function of your heart, along with the motion and structure of your four heart valves. The sound waves are the same kind used to see a baby before birth, and they use no radiation.

Why an Echocardiogram Is Ordered

An echo shows how your heart is working as it beats, which a still picture cannot. Doctors use it to find the cause of symptoms and to follow a heart condition over time.

Who Needs One

  • Shortness of breath, swelling or tiredness, where your doctor wants to know how well your heart pumps. This is the central test for heart failure.
  • A heart murmur or a valve problem, where the echo shows how each valve opens and closes. See heart valve disease.
  • After a heart attack, to see how much the heart muscle was affected.
  • A rhythm problem, such as atrial fibrillation, where the echo checks the size and strength of the heart's chambers.
  • A watchful follow-up, when you already have a heart condition and your doctor wants to check it on a schedule.

Sometimes a standard echo cannot show a part of the heart clearly enough, and your doctor may order a transesophageal echocardiogram, taken through the throat while you are sedated. If your doctor wants to see how your heart works under effort, you may have a stress echocardiogram, with pictures taken before and right after exercise or a medicine that makes the heart work harder. Your doctor tells you which kind you will have and how to prepare for it.

How to Prepare

For most echocardiograms, you need no special preparation: eat, drink and take your medicines as usual. You may be asked to change into a gown from the waist up.

Wear a two-piece outfit so only your top needs to come off. Bring your medicine list. If your doctor ordered a different type of echo, such as one done during exercise or one that uses a scope in the throat, the practice will give you its own instructions.

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[Brief description of the resource]

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What Happens During the Test

A technician, called a sonographer, places a few small, flat stickers on your chest to follow your heart rhythm. You lie on your left side on an exam table. The technician applies a little gel to your chest and presses a handheld device, called a transducer, against your skin and moves it to different spots. You may be asked to hold your breath for a moment or to roll slightly. The test is usually painless, and the pressure from the device can feel firm.

When it finishes, the technician wipes off the gel. You can go back to your day right away.

Risks

A standard echocardiogram has no known risks. It uses no radiation and no needles, and nothing enters your body. The gel may feel cool, and a few people have skin irritation from the stickers.

Understanding Your Results

A cardiologist reviews the pictures and measurements and sends a report to the doctor who ordered the test. The report describes the size and thickness of your heart's chambers, how strongly it pumps, how well your valves work and whether there is fluid around the heart.

One measurement you may hear is the ejection fraction, the share of blood your heart pumps out with each beat. A normal number is usually in the range of 50 to 70 percent. A lower number can point to a heart that pumps with less force, and your doctor will explain what it means for you.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does an Echocardiogram Hurt?

No. The device presses against your chest, and some people find that uncomfortable around tender areas. You can tell the technician if it hurts.

How Long Does It Take?

Plan on about an hour at the office or hospital for check-in, the test and changing. The pictures themselves often take 30 to 60 minutes.

Do I Need to Stop Eating or Drinking Before It?

For a standard echo, usually no. If your doctor orders another type, follow the instructions the office gives you.

Is an Echocardiogram the Same as an EKG?

No. An EKG records the electrical signals that start each heartbeat. An echo makes a picture of the heart's structure and movement. Many people have both.

When will I get my results?

A cardiologist reads the pictures and sends a report to your doctor, who goes over the results with you and explains what comes next.

Who Provides It and Where

Baptist Health offers echocardiograms at these places. Ask the practice that ordered your test where to go.

Hospitals

Practice offices

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[n] doctors foundMany doctors have multiple practice locations. View the doctor's profile for a complete list of their locationsSort By: A to Z
[Doctor Name 1], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
[Doctor Name 2], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
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[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
123›

Comprehensive Care

Related Service Lines
Heart and Vascular Care

Cardiologists order and read the echo to see how the heart pumps and how its valves work.

Learn More About Heart and Vascular Care
Primary Care

A murmur or breathlessness found at a checkup is a common reason primary care orders an echo.

Learn More About Primary Care
Conditions
Coronary artery disease

Coronary artery disease means the arteries that feed your heart have narrowed over time. It is common, it is treated every...

Learn More About Coronary artery disease
Heart failure

Heart failure means the heart pumps with less force than your body needs. It does not mean the heart has stopped. Baptist...

Learn More About Heart failure
Atrial fibrillation

Atrial fibrillation, or AFib, is the most common heart rhythm problem: the upper chambers beat in a fast, irregular pattern....

Learn More About Atrial fibrillation
Heart attack

A heart attack happens when blood flow to part of the heart muscle is suddenly blocked. It is an emergency: call 911....

Learn More About Heart attack
Heart valve disease

Heart valve disease means one or more of the heart's four valves does not open or close as it should. Many people are...

Learn More About Heart valve disease
Heart arrhythmia (tachycardia and bradycardia)

A heart arrhythmia is a problem with the heart's electrical signals, so the heart beats too fast, too slow or unevenly. Many...

Learn More About Heart arrhythmia (tachycardia and bradycardia)
Treatments
Cardiac catheterization

Cardiac catheterization uses a thin, flexible tube guided through a blood vessel to your heart. It shows your doctor how...

Learn More About Cardiac catheterization
Exercise stress test

A test that records your heart's rhythm and blood pressure while you walk on a treadmill, to show how your heart responds...

Learn More About Exercise stress test
Nuclear stress test

A heart imaging test that compares pictures of your heart at rest and under stress, using a small amount of radioactive...

Learn More About Nuclear stress test
Holter monitor

A small, wearable heart recorder that tracks your heart's rhythm for a day or two while you go about your normal day. It...

Learn More About Holter monitor
Coronary calcium scoring

A quick heart scan that measures the calcium in your heart's arteries, an early sign of plaque build-up. It needs no dye, no...

Learn More About Coronary calcium scoring
Doppler ultrasound

A Doppler ultrasound uses sound waves to show how blood moves through the veins and arteries in your arms, legs and neck. It...

Learn More About Doppler ultrasound

Scheduling Your Test

Your doctor orders the test and the practice schedules it. Ask the practice that ordered it about times and preparation.

Find a Cardiologist

Exercise Stress Test

A test that records your heart's rhythm and blood pressure while you walk on a treadmill, to show how your heart responds when it works harder. It helps your doctor find heart disease, rhythm problems and damage. If you cannot exercise, medicine can give your heart the same stress.

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Research and Evidence for This Page

This page's buttons: Find a Cardiologist. Tests are ordered by a doctor and scheduled by the practice: the practice when only one does the test, otherwise the doctor finder, since a patient cannot book the test without an order.
RULINGEvery page's buttons are chosen for the reader who lands on it

A page shows zero, one or two buttons, each reasoned from the moment its reader is in. Leads go where a real decision exists (planning a birth, a diagnosis in pregnancy, a failed screen, a follow-up specialist, a pediatrician for a healthy newborn). A page read by a parent whose baby is in a NICU now offers the page's own help and the support every NICU family gets, never a sales button. No button anywhere asks anyone to choose a NICU.

  • Nobody plans a NICU stay: a baby comes to one from the delivery room or by transfer between hospitals, so a button to find one serves no reader.
  • A baby in a NICU already has its doctors at the bedside, and most families name a pediatrician before discharge, so a pediatrician button on an apnea page sells to nobody.
  • Serving the business and serving the parent are meant to agree: where no honest lead exists, help that keeps the family with Orlando Health is the business value.
  • Two slots are a ceiling, never a quota: a filler button beside a page's one real action comes off.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDRelated services are single service lines, in the designer's Services tab

Related services render as the Services tab of the designer's tabs module, as he drew them: six cards on a line page, each one service line on the ruled list, never two specialties under one name, each with one sentence on how that line joins a newborn's care.

  • The designer's service line and location frames show Services, Conditions and Treatments as three tabs, the Services tab holding six single-line cards with a sentence each.
  • The ruled list of children's service lines carries pediatric hematology and pediatric oncology, pulmonology and sleep medicine, neurology and neurosurgery as separate lines; a combined name matches no page that will exist.
  • A gate refuses any service card whose name is not a ruled line.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDThe page is set in Lufga, the typeface Orlando Health uses, at its three weights

Every page uses Lufga, loaded from orlandohealth.com, at 400, 500 and 700 only. Headings 700, the hero paragraph 500, body and buttons 400.

  • Read on orlandohealth.com, 2026-10-20: the site loads Lufga in three files, Regular 400, Medium 500 and Bold 700, and sets its headings at 700.
  • The designer's frames are set in the same face; an earlier build used a stand-in, which is why its weights read differently beside his frames.

Sources

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDButtons are the designer's slim pills, with an icon in the hero

Pills are about 2.4 times their label tall, regular weight, with no border on solid pills; the two hero pills are equal width across the paragraph, each led by an ink icon chosen from its label. The facility hero's pills carry no icon.

  • Measured across the designer's frames: every pill is 2.3 to 2.5 times its label tall, and the hero pills carry a calendar or a phone before the label.
  • A gate checks every rendered pill against these proportions.

Decided 2026-10-20

RESEARCHBreadcrumbs show a page's place in the site; a back link and the line card give the way back

A library page's breadcrumbs follow its address (Home, Health Library, Conditions, the page), because one condition page serves every line that treats it. The way back to the line comes from two other places: the first card in the page's Services tab is the line itself, always; and a visitor who arrived from a line, unit, team or program page also sees a Back link at the right of the crumb bar, naming that page.

  • Breadcrumbs should show a page's place in the site's hierarchy, never the visitor's history; history trails grow long and repetitive and do nothing for a visitor who arrives from search.
  • A page with more than one parent shows one canonical trail for everyone, which keeps the page's signal to search engines consistent.
  • A separate link back to where the visitor came from is a common pattern (a store's Back to Results) and leaves the canonical trail untouched.
  • Tested in the demo: a parent reading condition pages could not find the way back to the Neonatal Care page.

Sources

Decided 2026-10-21

Some heart problems stay hidden while you rest. Your heart pumps along fine in a chair, and only shows strain when it has to work. An exercise stress test, often just called a stress test, asks your heart to work while a team watches closely, so your doctor can see what resting tests cannot.

Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, offers stress testing through its heart practices and at Baptist Health Calhoun Hospital. The test is supervised from start to finish, and it often takes less time than people expect.

You walk on a treadmill while the team watches your heart rhythm, blood pressure and how you feel, and you can ask to stop at any time if you feel unwell or too tired. This page covers why your doctor may order the test, how to get ready, what happens during it, its risks, and how to understand your results.

What Is an Exercise Stress Test?

During an exercise stress test, an electrocardiogram (EKG) records your heart's electrical activity while you exercise in a controlled way, usually by walking on a treadmill that gradually gets faster and steeper. A nurse or technician also checks your blood pressure, and a doctor reviews the results. Heart South Cardiovascular Group describes the test as a way to help detect heart irregularities, disease and damage.

If you cannot walk on a treadmill, your doctor can use medicine that makes your heart work harder in the same way. That is sometimes called a chemical stress test.

Why an Exercise Stress Test Is Ordered

Your heart's arteries may supply enough blood at rest and fall short when your heart needs more. A stress test can show that. It can also show a rhythm that appears only with effort.

Who Needs One

  • Chest pain or pressure, or shortness of breath with effort, where your doctor wants to know whether narrowed arteries are the cause. See coronary artery disease.
  • A known heart condition, to check how well treatment is working.
  • A rhythm that comes and goes with activity, such as arrhythmia.
  • Before a procedure or starting an exercise program, when your doctor wants to know how your heart handles effort.
  • After a heart attack or a stent, to see how your heart is doing as you recover.

If the test points to a blockage, the next step may be cardiac catheterization.

How to Prepare

Your practice will give you exact instructions. In general:

  • Wear loose clothes and walking shoes or sneakers.
  • Ask whether to eat before the test. Many practices ask you to skip a heavy meal for a few hours.
  • Ask which of your medicines to take that day. Some heart medicines change how your heart responds, and your doctor may ask you to hold them.
  • Skip caffeine if your practice asks. Before its nuclear stress test, Heart South asks for no caffeine at all, decaffeinated drinks included, and no tobacco or nicotine patch for four hours, and your practice may ask the same here.
  • Bring your inhaler if you use one.
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[Brief description of the resource]

[Resource Download/Access][Optional Secondary CTA]

What Happens During the Test

A technician places small sticky patches on your chest and attaches wires that connect to the EKG machine. A blood pressure cuff goes on your arm. First you rest while the team records your heart's baseline.

Then you begin to walk on the treadmill. Every few minutes, the speed and slope increase. You can say at any time how you feel. The team keeps watching your heart rhythm, your blood pressure and how you look and feel. You stop when you reach your target heart rate, when you are too tired or short of breath to continue, or if the team sees something that tells them to stop.

Afterward you rest for several minutes while your heart rate and blood pressure return to normal. The walking itself usually lasts well under 15 minutes, and the whole visit takes roughly an hour.

Risks

A stress test is safe for most people, and trained staff supervise it from start to finish. You may feel tired, short of breath or lightheaded, and the team will stop the test if you do. Rarely, the test causes chest pain, an irregular heartbeat or a heart attack, and the team is ready to respond.

Understanding Your Results

The cardiologist reviews the EKG and blood pressure readings and sends a report to the doctor who ordered the test.

  • A normal result means your heart rhythm and blood flow stayed within expected ranges as the work increased. Your doctor may still ask about your symptoms, because a normal result does not rule out every problem.
  • An abnormal result means the EKG changed with effort, or your blood pressure or symptoms did something unexpected. It does not tell you what is wrong. Your doctor may order more testing, such as a nuclear stress test or an echocardiogram.

Frequently Asked Questions

What If I Cannot Walk on a Treadmill?

Tell your doctor when you schedule, including any joint, balance or breathing problem. Medicine can raise your heart rate in the same way, and some tests combine it with imaging.

Is It Safe If I Have Heart Disease?

Yes, for most people, and that is when it is most useful. Your doctor orders the test only if it is right for your heart, and the team watches you closely. Tell the team about any chest pain, dizziness or new symptoms before you start.

Can I Take My Medicines That Morning?

Ask the practice when you schedule. Some medicines are taken as usual, and others are held. Do not stop a heart medicine on your own.

Do I Need Someone to Drive Me?

Most people drive themselves home after an exercise stress test. Ask when you schedule, and plan for a driver if you take a medicine that makes you drowsy or your test includes medicine to stress the heart.

What should I wear?

Comfortable clothes and walking or running shoes. A top that opens in the front, or a loose shirt, makes it easier to place the patches on your chest.

Who Provides It and Where

Ask the practice that ordered your test where to go.

Type a city or zip code
Use My Location
Type a doctor's first or last name
Female Male
View Doctors with Online Scheduling
[n] doctors foundMany doctors have multiple practice locations. View the doctor's profile for a complete list of their locationsSort By: A to Z
[Doctor Name 1], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
[Doctor Name 2], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
[Doctor Name 3], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
123›

Comprehensive Care

Related Service Lines
Heart and Vascular Care

Cardiologists use the stress test to look for narrowed arteries and rhythm problems with effort.

Learn More About Heart and Vascular Care
Primary Care

Chest discomfort with exercise is a common reason primary care sends you for a stress test.

Learn More About Primary Care
Conditions
Coronary artery disease

Coronary artery disease means the arteries that feed your heart have narrowed over time. It is common, it is treated every...

Learn More About Coronary artery disease
Heart failure

Heart failure means the heart pumps with less force than your body needs. It does not mean the heart has stopped. Baptist...

Learn More About Heart failure
Heart arrhythmia (tachycardia and bradycardia)

A heart arrhythmia is a problem with the heart's electrical signals, so the heart beats too fast, too slow or unevenly. Many...

Learn More About Heart arrhythmia (tachycardia and bradycardia)
Heart attack

A heart attack happens when blood flow to part of the heart muscle is suddenly blocked. It is an emergency: call 911....

Learn More About Heart attack
Treatments
Cardiac catheterization

Cardiac catheterization uses a thin, flexible tube guided through a blood vessel to your heart. It shows your doctor how...

Learn More About Cardiac catheterization
Nuclear stress test

A heart imaging test that compares pictures of your heart at rest and under stress, using a small amount of radioactive...

Learn More About Nuclear stress test
Echocardiogram

A painless ultrasound of your heart. Sound waves make a moving picture that shows the size and thickness of your heart, how...

Learn More About Echocardiogram
Holter monitor

A small, wearable heart recorder that tracks your heart's rhythm for a day or two while you go about your normal day. It...

Learn More About Holter monitor
Coronary calcium scoring

A quick heart scan that measures the calcium in your heart's arteries, an early sign of plaque build-up. It needs no dye, no...

Learn More About Coronary calcium scoring
Doppler ultrasound

A Doppler ultrasound uses sound waves to show how blood moves through the veins and arteries in your arms, legs and neck. It...

Learn More About Doppler ultrasound

Scheduling Your Test

Your doctor orders the test and the practice schedules it. Ask the practice that ordered it about times and preparation.

Find a Cardiologist

Nuclear Stress Test

A heart imaging test that compares pictures of your heart at rest and under stress, using a small amount of radioactive tracer to show how well blood reaches your heart muscle. Stress comes from treadmill exercise or from medicine. Plan on three to four hours at Heart South's office.

Medically Reviewed Content
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Research and Evidence for This Page

This page's buttons: Find a Cardiologist. Tests are ordered by a doctor and scheduled by the practice: the practice when only one does the test, otherwise the doctor finder, since a patient cannot book the test without an order.
RULINGEvery page's buttons are chosen for the reader who lands on it

A page shows zero, one or two buttons, each reasoned from the moment its reader is in. Leads go where a real decision exists (planning a birth, a diagnosis in pregnancy, a failed screen, a follow-up specialist, a pediatrician for a healthy newborn). A page read by a parent whose baby is in a NICU now offers the page's own help and the support every NICU family gets, never a sales button. No button anywhere asks anyone to choose a NICU.

  • Nobody plans a NICU stay: a baby comes to one from the delivery room or by transfer between hospitals, so a button to find one serves no reader.
  • A baby in a NICU already has its doctors at the bedside, and most families name a pediatrician before discharge, so a pediatrician button on an apnea page sells to nobody.
  • Serving the business and serving the parent are meant to agree: where no honest lead exists, help that keeps the family with Orlando Health is the business value.
  • Two slots are a ceiling, never a quota: a filler button beside a page's one real action comes off.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDRelated services are single service lines, in the designer's Services tab

Related services render as the Services tab of the designer's tabs module, as he drew them: six cards on a line page, each one service line on the ruled list, never two specialties under one name, each with one sentence on how that line joins a newborn's care.

  • The designer's service line and location frames show Services, Conditions and Treatments as three tabs, the Services tab holding six single-line cards with a sentence each.
  • The ruled list of children's service lines carries pediatric hematology and pediatric oncology, pulmonology and sleep medicine, neurology and neurosurgery as separate lines; a combined name matches no page that will exist.
  • A gate refuses any service card whose name is not a ruled line.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDThe page is set in Lufga, the typeface Orlando Health uses, at its three weights

Every page uses Lufga, loaded from orlandohealth.com, at 400, 500 and 700 only. Headings 700, the hero paragraph 500, body and buttons 400.

  • Read on orlandohealth.com, 2026-10-20: the site loads Lufga in three files, Regular 400, Medium 500 and Bold 700, and sets its headings at 700.
  • The designer's frames are set in the same face; an earlier build used a stand-in, which is why its weights read differently beside his frames.

Sources

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDButtons are the designer's slim pills, with an icon in the hero

Pills are about 2.4 times their label tall, regular weight, with no border on solid pills; the two hero pills are equal width across the paragraph, each led by an ink icon chosen from its label. The facility hero's pills carry no icon.

  • Measured across the designer's frames: every pill is 2.3 to 2.5 times its label tall, and the hero pills carry a calendar or a phone before the label.
  • A gate checks every rendered pill against these proportions.

Decided 2026-10-20

RESEARCHBreadcrumbs show a page's place in the site; a back link and the line card give the way back

A library page's breadcrumbs follow its address (Home, Health Library, Conditions, the page), because one condition page serves every line that treats it. The way back to the line comes from two other places: the first card in the page's Services tab is the line itself, always; and a visitor who arrived from a line, unit, team or program page also sees a Back link at the right of the crumb bar, naming that page.

  • Breadcrumbs should show a page's place in the site's hierarchy, never the visitor's history; history trails grow long and repetitive and do nothing for a visitor who arrives from search.
  • A page with more than one parent shows one canonical trail for everyone, which keeps the page's signal to search engines consistent.
  • A separate link back to where the visitor came from is a common pattern (a store's Back to Results) and leaves the canonical trail untouched.
  • Tested in the demo: a parent reading condition pages could not find the way back to the Neonatal Care page.

Sources

Decided 2026-10-21

Your doctor wants a closer look at the blood flow to your heart. An exercise test shows how your heart's electrical signal responds to effort. A nuclear stress test adds pictures, so your doctor can see which parts of the heart muscle get plenty of blood and which do not.

Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, offers nuclear stress testing through Heart South Cardiovascular Group and through Baptist Health Cardiovascular Associates. The word nuclear can sound alarming. The tracer is a very small amount of radioactive material that your body clears on its own, and the test is a standard way to look at the heart.

Plan to spend several hours on the day, and bring something to read, because the pictures are taken at rest and again after your heart has worked harder.

What Is a Nuclear Stress Test?

A nuclear stress test is a supervised test in which your heart is stressed, by treadmill exercise or by medicine, while an EKG monitors it. A radioactive tracer is injected into a vein. A special camera takes one set of pictures after the stress and a second set at rest, and your doctor compares the two. Heart South Cardiovascular Group describes it this way and notes that your doctor interprets the images afterward.

The tracer travels in your blood and collects in healthy heart muscle in proportion to the blood reaching it. Areas that take up less tracer on the stress pictures may be getting less blood.

Why a Nuclear Stress Test Is Ordered

A nuclear stress test shows where blood flow to your heart muscle falls short, which an EKG alone cannot show.

Who Needs One

  • Chest pain or breathlessness that points to narrowed arteries, especially when an exercise test did not give a clear answer. See coronary artery disease.
  • A known heart condition, to see how well treatment works or whether blockages have changed.
  • Before or after a procedure, such as a stent or bypass, to check blood flow.
  • A person who cannot exercise enough, because medicine can give the stress instead.

If the pictures point to a blockage, your doctor may recommend cardiac catheterization.

How to Prepare

Heart South gives you a prep sheet for this test. Follow the sheet your office gives you. As it stands, the sheet asks you to:

  • Have no caffeine products, and no decaffeinated products either. Milk, juice and water are fine.
  • Use no smoking or chewing tobacco for 4 hours before your scheduled time, and no nicotine patch.
  • Take no Viagra, Cialis or Levitra for 36 hours before your scheduled time.
  • Bring your inhaler if you use one.
  • Wear a two-piece outfit. Women should skip dresses. Men should skip overalls. Avoid metal buttons or snaps on top.
  • Bring walking shoes or sneakers in case you need them.

Plan to be at the office for 3 to 4 hours.

Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

[Resource Headline]

[Optional Sub-Heading]

[Brief description of the resource]

[Resource Download/Access][Optional Secondary CTA]

What Happens During the Test

You change into a gown and the team places EKG patches on your chest. A nurse or technician places an IV in your arm.

Then your heart is stressed. You walk on a treadmill, or, if you cannot exercise, you receive medicine through the IV that makes your heart work as it would with exercise. The EKG and your blood pressure are watched throughout. At the peak of the stress, the team injects the tracer.

After the stress, you lie still on a table under a camera that takes pictures of your heart. Later, a second set of pictures is taken at rest. Most of the visit is waiting between the steps.

Risks

Most people have no problem with this test. The IV can bruise. The medicine used to stress the heart can cause flushing, a headache, a fast heartbeat or chest pressure for a few minutes, and the team can reverse these effects. The tracer gives you a small dose of radiation, similar to other imaging tests, and passes out of your body in a day or so. Rarely, stress brings on chest pain or an irregular heartbeat, and the team is there to respond. Tell your doctor if you are or may be pregnant, or if you are nursing.

Understanding Your Results

A cardiologist compares the two sets of pictures and sends a report to the doctor who ordered the test.

  • Even tracer in both sets means blood flow to your heart muscle looks adequate at rest and under stress.
  • Less tracer in an area under stress that fills in at rest may mean a narrowed artery is limiting blood flow when your heart works harder.
  • Less tracer in both sets may mean an area of heart muscle that has been damaged, for example after a heart attack.

The pictures can also show how well your heart pumps.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why Does It Take So Long?

The tracer needs time to reach your heart, and there are two sets of pictures. Most of the visit is waiting between steps. Heart South asks you to plan for three to four hours.

Do I Have to Stay Away From Caffeine?

Yes. Caffeine can interfere with the medicine used in the test, and Heart South's sheet excludes decaffeinated drinks too. Milk, juice and water are fine.

Is the Radioactive Tracer Safe?

The amount is small, and your body clears it on its own within a day or two; drinking water helps. Tell the team if you may be pregnant or are nursing, since the test may be changed or delayed.

Can I Drive Home?

Most people can. Ask when you schedule.

Can I take my medicines that morning?

Ask the practice when you schedule. Some heart medicines are held before the test and others are taken as usual. Do not stop a heart medicine on your own.

Who Provides It and Where

Heart South Cardiovascular Group performs nuclear stress tests. For questions about your test, call 205-663-5775. To schedule, call or use the online booking at heartsouthpc.com.

Baptist Health Cardiovascular Associates also offers nuclear stress testing, at the Colonnade and Jasper offices. Call (205) 510-5000 or request an appointment at baptisthealthal.com/cva.

Type a city or zip code
Use My Location
Type a doctor's first or last name
Female Male
View Doctors with Online Scheduling
[n] doctors foundMany doctors have multiple practice locations. View the doctor's profile for a complete list of their locationsSort By: A to Z
[Doctor Name 1], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
[Doctor Name 2], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
[Doctor Name 3], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
123›

Comprehensive Care

Related Service Lines
Heart and Vascular Care

Cardiologists read where blood flow to the heart muscle falls short under stress.

Learn More About Heart and Vascular Care
Radiology and Diagnostic Imaging

Nuclear imaging takes the pictures that show blood flow to the heart at rest and under stress.

Learn More About Radiology and Diagnostic Imaging
Conditions
Coronary artery disease

Coronary artery disease means the arteries that feed your heart have narrowed over time. It is common, it is treated every...

Learn More About Coronary artery disease
Heart attack

A heart attack happens when blood flow to part of the heart muscle is suddenly blocked. It is an emergency: call 911....

Learn More About Heart attack
Treatments
Cardiac catheterization

Cardiac catheterization uses a thin, flexible tube guided through a blood vessel to your heart. It shows your doctor how...

Learn More About Cardiac catheterization
Echocardiogram

A painless ultrasound of your heart. Sound waves make a moving picture that shows the size and thickness of your heart, how...

Learn More About Echocardiogram
Exercise stress test

A test that records your heart's rhythm and blood pressure while you walk on a treadmill, to show how your heart responds...

Learn More About Exercise stress test
Holter monitor

A small, wearable heart recorder that tracks your heart's rhythm for a day or two while you go about your normal day. It...

Learn More About Holter monitor
Coronary calcium scoring

A quick heart scan that measures the calcium in your heart's arteries, an early sign of plaque build-up. It needs no dye, no...

Learn More About Coronary calcium scoring
Doppler ultrasound

A Doppler ultrasound uses sound waves to show how blood moves through the veins and arteries in your arms, legs and neck. It...

Learn More About Doppler ultrasound

Scheduling Your Test

Your doctor orders the test and the practice schedules it. Ask the practice that ordered it about times and preparation.

Find a Cardiologist

Holter Monitor

A small, wearable heart recorder that tracks your heart's rhythm for a day or two while you go about your normal day. It helps your doctor find rhythm problems that come and go, such as skipped beats, a racing heart or pauses. Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, offers heart rhythm monitoring in its Alabama heart practices and hospitals.

Medically Reviewed Content
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Research and Evidence for This Page

This page's buttons: Find a Cardiologist. Tests are ordered by a doctor and scheduled by the practice: the practice when only one does the test, otherwise the doctor finder, since a patient cannot book the test without an order.
RULINGEvery page's buttons are chosen for the reader who lands on it

A page shows zero, one or two buttons, each reasoned from the moment its reader is in. Leads go where a real decision exists (planning a birth, a diagnosis in pregnancy, a failed screen, a follow-up specialist, a pediatrician for a healthy newborn). A page read by a parent whose baby is in a NICU now offers the page's own help and the support every NICU family gets, never a sales button. No button anywhere asks anyone to choose a NICU.

  • Nobody plans a NICU stay: a baby comes to one from the delivery room or by transfer between hospitals, so a button to find one serves no reader.
  • A baby in a NICU already has its doctors at the bedside, and most families name a pediatrician before discharge, so a pediatrician button on an apnea page sells to nobody.
  • Serving the business and serving the parent are meant to agree: where no honest lead exists, help that keeps the family with Orlando Health is the business value.
  • Two slots are a ceiling, never a quota: a filler button beside a page's one real action comes off.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDRelated services are single service lines, in the designer's Services tab

Related services render as the Services tab of the designer's tabs module, as he drew them: six cards on a line page, each one service line on the ruled list, never two specialties under one name, each with one sentence on how that line joins a newborn's care.

  • The designer's service line and location frames show Services, Conditions and Treatments as three tabs, the Services tab holding six single-line cards with a sentence each.
  • The ruled list of children's service lines carries pediatric hematology and pediatric oncology, pulmonology and sleep medicine, neurology and neurosurgery as separate lines; a combined name matches no page that will exist.
  • A gate refuses any service card whose name is not a ruled line.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDThe page is set in Lufga, the typeface Orlando Health uses, at its three weights

Every page uses Lufga, loaded from orlandohealth.com, at 400, 500 and 700 only. Headings 700, the hero paragraph 500, body and buttons 400.

  • Read on orlandohealth.com, 2026-10-20: the site loads Lufga in three files, Regular 400, Medium 500 and Bold 700, and sets its headings at 700.
  • The designer's frames are set in the same face; an earlier build used a stand-in, which is why its weights read differently beside his frames.

Sources

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDButtons are the designer's slim pills, with an icon in the hero

Pills are about 2.4 times their label tall, regular weight, with no border on solid pills; the two hero pills are equal width across the paragraph, each led by an ink icon chosen from its label. The facility hero's pills carry no icon.

  • Measured across the designer's frames: every pill is 2.3 to 2.5 times its label tall, and the hero pills carry a calendar or a phone before the label.
  • A gate checks every rendered pill against these proportions.

Decided 2026-10-20

RESEARCHBreadcrumbs show a page's place in the site; a back link and the line card give the way back

A library page's breadcrumbs follow its address (Home, Health Library, Conditions, the page), because one condition page serves every line that treats it. The way back to the line comes from two other places: the first card in the page's Services tab is the line itself, always; and a visitor who arrived from a line, unit, team or program page also sees a Back link at the right of the crumb bar, naming that page.

  • Breadcrumbs should show a page's place in the site's hierarchy, never the visitor's history; history trails grow long and repetitive and do nothing for a visitor who arrives from search.
  • A page with more than one parent shows one canonical trail for everyone, which keeps the page's signal to search engines consistent.
  • A separate link back to where the visitor came from is a common pattern (a store's Back to Results) and leaves the canonical trail untouched.
  • Tested in the demo: a parent reading condition pages could not find the way back to the Neonatal Care page.

Sources

Decided 2026-10-21

Your heart skipped, fluttered or raced in the grocery store, and by the time you reached the doctor it was behaving. Many rhythm problems come and go like this, and a short EKG in the office often misses them. A Holter monitor goes home with you for a day and catches what happens while you live your life.

Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, offers Holter monitoring through Heart South Cardiovascular Group, and Baptist Health Calhoun Hospital lists ambulatory monitoring among its heart services. The test is painless, and what you do is wear it and write down how you feel.

You go home with the monitor and keep to your normal day while it records, then return it so your cardiologist can read the recording. This page covers why your doctor may order one, how to get ready, what wearing it is like, its risks, and how to understand your results.

What Is a Holter Monitor?

A Holter monitor is an electrocardiogram (EKG) that is attached to you for 24 hours. It records your heart's electrical activity continuously as you go about your daily routine, so your doctor can see your rhythm through a full day and night. Heart South Cardiovascular Group describes it this way. The monitor is small enough to wear on a strap or clip, with thin wires leading to patches on your chest.

Why a Holter Monitor Is Ordered

A normal EKG shows your heart for about 10 seconds. A Holter monitor shows it for a day, which gives your doctor a much better chance of catching a rhythm that comes and goes.

Who Needs One

  • Palpitations, the feeling of a skipped, pounding or racing heartbeat.
  • Dizziness, fainting or near-fainting that your doctor wants to match to your heart rhythm.
  • A known rhythm problem, such as atrial fibrillation or another arrhythmia, where your doctor wants to see how well treatment is working.
  • After a heart event or procedure, when your doctor wants to watch your rhythm as you recover.

If your symptoms come less than once a day, your doctor may choose a monitor you wear longer, or an implantable cardiac loop recorder that records for years.

The recording can also show that your rhythm stayed normal while you felt symptoms, which helps your doctor look for another cause. Either answer moves your care forward, and your doctor goes over the results with you and explains what comes next.

How to Prepare

You need no fasting, and you can eat and take your medicines as usual unless your doctor says otherwise. A few tips help:

  • Wear a loose top that buttons or zips, so the wires are easy to place.
  • Bathe before you come in. You will need to keep the monitor dry afterward.
  • Tell the technician about any skin allergy to adhesive.
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

[Resource Headline]

[Optional Sub-Heading]

[Brief description of the resource]

[Resource Download/Access][Optional Secondary CTA]

What Happens During the Test

A technician cleans small areas on your chest, and a few may need shaving so the patches stick. The technician places the patches, connects the wires to the recorder, and checks that it is working. The visit usually takes about 15 to 30 minutes.

Then you go home and live your day. Do what you normally do, including exercise if your doctor has said it is fine, because the aim is to catch your heart in your everyday life. Keep a diary of the time you feel symptoms, and what you were doing. Press the button on the recorder if it has one. Keep the monitor dry: sponge bathe rather than shower unless your practice says otherwise.

After the wear time your practice sets, usually 24 to 48 hours, you return the monitor to the office.

Risks

A Holter monitor has no risks to your heart. It only records. Some people get mild skin irritation or redness where the patches were, and it clears quickly once they are removed.

Understanding Your Results

A technician and cardiologist review the recording and your diary, matching what you felt to what your heart did. The report goes to the doctor who ordered the test. It may show how fast your heart beat, whether it paused, and whether there were extra beats or a sustained abnormal rhythm.

  • When your symptoms matched a rhythm change, your doctor has an answer and can discuss treatment.
  • When your symptoms came with a normal rhythm, that is useful too, because it rules out a rhythm problem as the cause.
  • When no symptoms came while you wore the monitor, your doctor may suggest wearing a monitor for longer.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does a Holter Monitor Hurt?

No. The patches feel like bandages, and removing them can pull a little at the skin.

Can I Shower While I Wear It?

Usually not. Most Holter monitors are not waterproof, so plan your bath before your visit. Ask your practice for its rule.

What If I Feel Symptoms and Nothing Is Recorded?

The recorder tracks your rhythm the entire time you wear it, so it captures what happens even when you do not press a button. Write down the time of each symptom in your diary.

What If My Symptoms Did Not Happen That Day?

Tell your doctor. A longer monitor or an implantable loop recorder can catch rhythm problems that do not appear every day.

Can I exercise while wearing a Holter monitor?

Yes, you can. Keep to your usual activity, including exercise your doctor has cleared, and note in your diary what you were doing when you felt symptoms. Keep the recorder close to your body, and stay away from electric blankets, magnets and high-voltage areas while you wear it, since they can interfere with the recording.

Who Provides It and Where

Ask the practice that ordered your test where to go.

Type a city or zip code
Use My Location
Type a doctor's first or last name
Female Male
View Doctors with Online Scheduling
[n] doctors foundMany doctors have multiple practice locations. View the doctor's profile for a complete list of their locationsSort By: A to Z
[Doctor Name 1], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
[Doctor Name 2], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
[Doctor Name 3], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
123›

Comprehensive Care

Related Service Lines
Heart and Vascular Care

Cardiologists read the recording to match palpitations or dizziness to your heart rhythm.

Learn More About Heart and Vascular Care
Neuroscience

Dizziness and fainting can come from the heart or the brain, and a Holter helps tell them apart.

Learn More About Neuroscience
Conditions
Atrial fibrillation

Atrial fibrillation, or AFib, is the most common heart rhythm problem: the upper chambers beat in a fast, irregular pattern....

Learn More About Atrial fibrillation
Heart arrhythmia (tachycardia and bradycardia)

A heart arrhythmia is a problem with the heart's electrical signals, so the heart beats too fast, too slow or unevenly. Many...

Learn More About Heart arrhythmia (tachycardia and bradycardia)
Treatments
Implantable cardiac loop recorder placement

An implantable loop recorder is a very small device placed just under the skin of your chest. It records your heart rhythm...

Learn More About Implantable cardiac loop recorder placement
Cardiac catheterization

Cardiac catheterization uses a thin, flexible tube guided through a blood vessel to your heart. It shows your doctor how...

Learn More About Cardiac catheterization
Echocardiogram

A painless ultrasound of your heart. Sound waves make a moving picture that shows the size and thickness of your heart, how...

Learn More About Echocardiogram
Exercise stress test

A test that records your heart's rhythm and blood pressure while you walk on a treadmill, to show how your heart responds...

Learn More About Exercise stress test
Nuclear stress test

A heart imaging test that compares pictures of your heart at rest and under stress, using a small amount of radioactive...

Learn More About Nuclear stress test
Coronary calcium scoring

A quick heart scan that measures the calcium in your heart's arteries, an early sign of plaque build-up. It needs no dye, no...

Learn More About Coronary calcium scoring

Scheduling Your Test

Your doctor orders the test and the practice schedules it. Ask the practice that ordered it about times and preparation.

Find a Cardiologist

Coronary Calcium Scoring

A quick heart scan that measures the calcium in your heart's arteries, an early sign of plaque build-up. It needs no dye, no needles and no fasting, and the scan itself takes about five minutes. Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, offers it through Heart South, and your score helps your doctor judge your risk.

Medically Reviewed Content
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Research and Evidence for This Page

This page's buttons: See Heart South. Tests are ordered by a doctor and scheduled by the practice: the practice when only one does the test, otherwise the doctor finder, since a patient cannot book the test without an order.
RULINGEvery page's buttons are chosen for the reader who lands on it

A page shows zero, one or two buttons, each reasoned from the moment its reader is in. Leads go where a real decision exists (planning a birth, a diagnosis in pregnancy, a failed screen, a follow-up specialist, a pediatrician for a healthy newborn). A page read by a parent whose baby is in a NICU now offers the page's own help and the support every NICU family gets, never a sales button. No button anywhere asks anyone to choose a NICU.

  • Nobody plans a NICU stay: a baby comes to one from the delivery room or by transfer between hospitals, so a button to find one serves no reader.
  • A baby in a NICU already has its doctors at the bedside, and most families name a pediatrician before discharge, so a pediatrician button on an apnea page sells to nobody.
  • Serving the business and serving the parent are meant to agree: where no honest lead exists, help that keeps the family with Orlando Health is the business value.
  • Two slots are a ceiling, never a quota: a filler button beside a page's one real action comes off.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDRelated services are single service lines, in the designer's Services tab

Related services render as the Services tab of the designer's tabs module, as he drew them: six cards on a line page, each one service line on the ruled list, never two specialties under one name, each with one sentence on how that line joins a newborn's care.

  • The designer's service line and location frames show Services, Conditions and Treatments as three tabs, the Services tab holding six single-line cards with a sentence each.
  • The ruled list of children's service lines carries pediatric hematology and pediatric oncology, pulmonology and sleep medicine, neurology and neurosurgery as separate lines; a combined name matches no page that will exist.
  • A gate refuses any service card whose name is not a ruled line.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDThe page is set in Lufga, the typeface Orlando Health uses, at its three weights

Every page uses Lufga, loaded from orlandohealth.com, at 400, 500 and 700 only. Headings 700, the hero paragraph 500, body and buttons 400.

  • Read on orlandohealth.com, 2026-10-20: the site loads Lufga in three files, Regular 400, Medium 500 and Bold 700, and sets its headings at 700.
  • The designer's frames are set in the same face; an earlier build used a stand-in, which is why its weights read differently beside his frames.

Sources

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDButtons are the designer's slim pills, with an icon in the hero

Pills are about 2.4 times their label tall, regular weight, with no border on solid pills; the two hero pills are equal width across the paragraph, each led by an ink icon chosen from its label. The facility hero's pills carry no icon.

  • Measured across the designer's frames: every pill is 2.3 to 2.5 times its label tall, and the hero pills carry a calendar or a phone before the label.
  • A gate checks every rendered pill against these proportions.

Decided 2026-10-20

RESEARCHBreadcrumbs show a page's place in the site; a back link and the line card give the way back

A library page's breadcrumbs follow its address (Home, Health Library, Conditions, the page), because one condition page serves every line that treats it. The way back to the line comes from two other places: the first card in the page's Services tab is the line itself, always; and a visitor who arrived from a line, unit, team or program page also sees a Back link at the right of the crumb bar, naming that page.

  • Breadcrumbs should show a page's place in the site's hierarchy, never the visitor's history; history trails grow long and repetitive and do nothing for a visitor who arrives from search.
  • A page with more than one parent shows one canonical trail for everyone, which keeps the page's signal to search engines consistent.
  • A separate link back to where the visitor came from is a common pattern (a store's Back to Results) and leaves the canonical trail untouched.
  • Tested in the demo: a parent reading condition pages could not find the way back to the Neonatal Care page.

Sources

Decided 2026-10-21

Heart disease often builds for years before it causes a symptom. Calcium scoring is a way to look for it before symptoms start. If your doctor has suggested one, you may be wondering whether the scan is hard or whether it is a sign something is wrong. The scan is quick and easy, and many people who take it have no symptoms at all.

Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, offers coronary calcium scoring through Heart South Cardiovascular Group. Heart South describes it as a heart scan that can detect heart disease even before you have symptoms.

The scan takes only minutes, needs no needles or dye, and you can drive yourself home afterward. Your doctor uses the score together with your cholesterol, blood pressure and family history. This page covers why the scan is ordered, how to get ready, what happens during it, its risks, and how to understand your score.

What Is a Coronary Calcium Scan?

Coronary calcium scoring, also called a calcium score or a heart scan, is a specialized X-ray test, a CT scan, that makes pictures of your heart and measures the calcium-containing plaque in your coronary arteries. Those are the arteries that feed your heart muscle. Cholesterol builds up on artery walls and, over time, calcium collects in that build-up. The more calcium the scan finds, the more plaque is likely in your arteries.

Heart South uses a 64-slice CT scanner, which it describes as fast and detailed. The scan gives a number, your calcium score.

Why a Coronary Calcium Scan Is Ordered

A calcium score helps your doctor decide how strongly to treat your heart disease risk. For someone whose risk is uncertain, a high score can tip the decision toward medicine such as a statin or toward other protective steps. A score of zero can be reassuring.

Who Needs One

Calcium scoring is most useful for adults without heart symptoms whose risk of heart disease falls in the middle, and who are unsure whether to start medicine. Your doctor may suggest one if you:

  • Are in middle age or older and have risk factors such as high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes, smoking or a family history of early heart disease
  • Are unsure whether to start a cholesterol medicine
  • Have borderline results on other tests

If you already have chest pain, your doctor will usually choose a different test, such as a stress test.

A calcium scan adds less for people whose treatment is already clear: those already diagnosed with coronary artery disease, those already taking a cholesterol medicine their doctor recommends, and younger adults with very low risk. Ask your doctor whether the result would change your plan before you book one.

How to Prepare

Heart South says the test needs no prep, no dye and no fasting, and you drink nothing special. You can eat and take your medicines as usual. Wear a two-piece outfit and avoid metal buttons or snaps on top, so nothing blocks the picture.

Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

[Resource Headline]

[Optional Sub-Heading]

[Brief description of the resource]

[Resource Download/Access][Optional Secondary CTA]

What Happens During the Test

You lie on a table that slides into the CT scanner, and small EKG patches on your chest help time the pictures to your heartbeat. You hold your breath for a few seconds while the scanner takes the pictures. The scan itself takes less than a minute, and the visit takes about five minutes. No dye or sedation is needed.

You can return to your day right away, including driving and going back to work.

Risks

The scan uses a small dose of radiation, about a third of that in a usual CT scan according to Heart South's cardiologist. Tell the team if you are or may be pregnant. Because the scan can find calcium you did not know about, it may lead to more tests or to starting treatment.

Understanding Your Results

Your result is a number called the Agatston score. A cardiologist reviews the scan and sends your doctor the report. A general guide:

  • 0 means no calcium found. The chance of a heart attack over the next several years is very low.
  • 1 to 99 means a small amount of plaque.
  • 100 to 399 means a moderate amount.
  • 400 or higher means a large amount, and a higher chance of a heart event.

A higher score does not mean you will have a heart attack, and a score of zero does not guarantee you never will. The score is one piece of your risk picture, next to your cholesterol, blood pressure, age and family history. Your doctor will talk with you about the steps that fit your number. Many people find that seeing the picture makes them more willing to follow through on treatment.

If your score is above zero, your doctor focuses on the steps that lower your risk: medicines such as a statin, activity, food and not using tobacco. The scan is not usually repeated once treatment has started, because the result would not change the plan. A score of zero is sometimes repeated after several years to see whether anything has changed.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Insurance Cover Calcium Scoring?

Often it does not. Ask your insurer and ask Heart South about the cost when you schedule.

Do I Need a Doctor's Order?

Ask when you schedule.

Is It the Same as a Cardiac Catheterization?

No. Calcium scoring is a scan with no needle, no dye and no recovery time. Cardiac catheterization is a procedure that looks inside the arteries.

How Often Should I Repeat It?

Your doctor decides. A score of zero is often not repeated for several years, and a higher score is not usually repeated just to track plaque.

What happens after I get my score?

Your doctor talks with you about what the score means for your risk and whether to start or change medicine, such as a statin. A higher score is a reason to act on the risk factors you can change, and it does not by itself mean you need a procedure.

Who Provides It and Where

Heart South Cardiovascular Group offers calcium scoring. Call 205-663-5775 to schedule, or book online at heartsouthpc.com.

Type a city or zip code
Use My Location
Type a doctor's first or last name
Female Male
View Doctors with Online Scheduling
[n] doctors foundMany doctors have multiple practice locations. View the doctor's profile for a complete list of their locationsSort By: A to Z
[Doctor Name 1], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
[Doctor Name 2], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
[Doctor Name 3], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
123›

Comprehensive Care

Related Service Lines
Heart and Vascular Care

Cardiologists use your calcium score to decide how strongly to treat your heart disease risk.

Learn More About Heart and Vascular Care
Radiology and Diagnostic Imaging

The calcium score comes from a quick CT scan of the heart, with no dye or needles.

Learn More About Radiology and Diagnostic Imaging
Primary Care

Your primary care doctor may suggest a calcium score when your heart risk is unclear.

Learn More About Primary Care
Conditions
Coronary artery disease

Coronary artery disease means the arteries that feed your heart have narrowed over time. It is common, it is treated every...

Learn More About Coronary artery disease
Treatments
Exercise stress test

A test that records your heart's rhythm and blood pressure while you walk on a treadmill, to show how your heart responds...

Learn More About Exercise stress test
Cardiac catheterization

Cardiac catheterization uses a thin, flexible tube guided through a blood vessel to your heart. It shows your doctor how...

Learn More About Cardiac catheterization
Echocardiogram

A painless ultrasound of your heart. Sound waves make a moving picture that shows the size and thickness of your heart, how...

Learn More About Echocardiogram
Nuclear stress test

A heart imaging test that compares pictures of your heart at rest and under stress, using a small amount of radioactive...

Learn More About Nuclear stress test
Holter monitor

A small, wearable heart recorder that tracks your heart's rhythm for a day or two while you go about your normal day. It...

Learn More About Holter monitor
Doppler ultrasound

A Doppler ultrasound uses sound waves to show how blood moves through the veins and arteries in your arms, legs and neck. It...

Learn More About Doppler ultrasound

References

Scheduling Your Test

Your doctor orders the test and the practice schedules it. Ask the practice that ordered it about times and preparation.

Find a Cardiologist

Doppler Ultrasound

A Doppler ultrasound uses sound waves to show how blood moves through the veins and arteries in your arms, legs and neck. It involves no needles, no dye and no radiation, and it helps your care team find a blockage, a clot or a leaking vein.

Medically Reviewed Content
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Research and Evidence for This Page

This page's buttons: Find a Cardiologist. Tests are ordered by a doctor and scheduled by the practice: the practice when only one does the test, otherwise the doctor finder, since a patient cannot book the test without an order.
RULINGEvery page's buttons are chosen for the reader who lands on it

A page shows zero, one or two buttons, each reasoned from the moment its reader is in. Leads go where a real decision exists (planning a birth, a diagnosis in pregnancy, a failed screen, a follow-up specialist, a pediatrician for a healthy newborn). A page read by a parent whose baby is in a NICU now offers the page's own help and the support every NICU family gets, never a sales button. No button anywhere asks anyone to choose a NICU.

  • Nobody plans a NICU stay: a baby comes to one from the delivery room or by transfer between hospitals, so a button to find one serves no reader.
  • A baby in a NICU already has its doctors at the bedside, and most families name a pediatrician before discharge, so a pediatrician button on an apnea page sells to nobody.
  • Serving the business and serving the parent are meant to agree: where no honest lead exists, help that keeps the family with Orlando Health is the business value.
  • Two slots are a ceiling, never a quota: a filler button beside a page's one real action comes off.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDRelated services are single service lines, in the designer's Services tab

Related services render as the Services tab of the designer's tabs module, as he drew them: six cards on a line page, each one service line on the ruled list, never two specialties under one name, each with one sentence on how that line joins a newborn's care.

  • The designer's service line and location frames show Services, Conditions and Treatments as three tabs, the Services tab holding six single-line cards with a sentence each.
  • The ruled list of children's service lines carries pediatric hematology and pediatric oncology, pulmonology and sleep medicine, neurology and neurosurgery as separate lines; a combined name matches no page that will exist.
  • A gate refuses any service card whose name is not a ruled line.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDThe page is set in Lufga, the typeface Orlando Health uses, at its three weights

Every page uses Lufga, loaded from orlandohealth.com, at 400, 500 and 700 only. Headings 700, the hero paragraph 500, body and buttons 400.

  • Read on orlandohealth.com, 2026-10-20: the site loads Lufga in three files, Regular 400, Medium 500 and Bold 700, and sets its headings at 700.
  • The designer's frames are set in the same face; an earlier build used a stand-in, which is why its weights read differently beside his frames.

Sources

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDButtons are the designer's slim pills, with an icon in the hero

Pills are about 2.4 times their label tall, regular weight, with no border on solid pills; the two hero pills are equal width across the paragraph, each led by an ink icon chosen from its label. The facility hero's pills carry no icon.

  • Measured across the designer's frames: every pill is 2.3 to 2.5 times its label tall, and the hero pills carry a calendar or a phone before the label.
  • A gate checks every rendered pill against these proportions.

Decided 2026-10-20

RESEARCHBreadcrumbs show a page's place in the site; a back link and the line card give the way back

A library page's breadcrumbs follow its address (Home, Health Library, Conditions, the page), because one condition page serves every line that treats it. The way back to the line comes from two other places: the first card in the page's Services tab is the line itself, always; and a visitor who arrived from a line, unit, team or program page also sees a Back link at the right of the crumb bar, naming that page.

  • Breadcrumbs should show a page's place in the site's hierarchy, never the visitor's history; history trails grow long and repetitive and do nothing for a visitor who arrives from search.
  • A page with more than one parent shows one canonical trail for everyone, which keeps the page's signal to search engines consistent.
  • A separate link back to where the visitor came from is a common pattern (a store's Back to Results) and leaves the canonical trail untouched.
  • Tested in the demo: a parent reading condition pages could not find the way back to the Neonatal Care page.

Sources

Decided 2026-10-21

A Doppler ultrasound is a painless scan of your blood vessels. A technician moves a small handheld probe over your skin, and sound waves paint a picture of the blood moving beneath it: how fast it flows, which way it flows, and whether anything is slowing it down. Your doctor may order one when your legs ache, swell or feel heavy, or when a neck artery needs a closer look.

Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, offers Doppler testing through its Alabama heart and vascular practices. Heart South Cardiovascular Group performs venous and carotid Doppler studies, and the Baptist Health Vein Center in Hoover performs venous flow studies for people with vein concerns. The test takes place in the office, so most people walk in and walk out the same day.

The test needs little preparation and no needles, and most people drive home and go straight back to their day afterward.

What Is a Doppler Ultrasound?

Doppler ultrasound is a non-invasive test that evaluates blood flow in the major veins and arteries of the arms and legs. A Doppler study can also look at the carotid arteries, the vessels in the neck that supply the brain.

The test works the way a standard ultrasound does. The probe sends out sound waves that are too high for people to hear, and the waves bounce back from moving blood cells. A computer turns the echoes into a picture and a sound. Fast, slow, blocked and backward flow each look and sound different, which is how the technician and your doctor read what is happening inside the vessel.

You may also hear the term duplex ultrasound. A duplex scan combines the picture of the vessel with the Doppler measurement of the blood moving through it. Heart South lists duplex ultrasound among its peripheral vascular services.

Why a Doppler Ultrasound Is Ordered

A Doppler ultrasound shows how blood moves through your arteries and veins, so your doctor can find a narrowing, a clot or a leaking valve without any needles or radiation.

Who Needs One

Your doctor may order a Doppler ultrasound to look for:

Symptoms that often lead to the test include leg pain or cramping when you walk, ankle swelling, a heavy feeling in the legs, and skin or hair changes on the lower legs.

How to Prepare

Most Doppler studies need little preparation. Wear loose clothing that is easy to roll up or remove from the area being scanned. Bring your medication list and any earlier vascular test results you have.

Take your medicines as usual unless your care team tells you otherwise. If you have questions about the day of your test, call the office that scheduled it.

Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

[Resource Headline]

[Optional Sub-Heading]

[Brief description of the resource]

[Resource Download/Access][Optional Secondary CTA]

What Happens During the Test

A trained technician guides you through each step, and the test usually takes under an hour.

  1. You lie on an exam table, or stand for a leg vein study. Heart South's vein center does its venous scan while you stand, because standing lets the veins fill and shows any leakage in their valves.
  2. The technician spreads a warm gel on your skin. The gel helps the sound waves travel.
  3. The technician glides the probe over your arm, leg or neck. You may hear the sound of your blood flow, and the technician may ask you to take a breath or tighten your calf to see how the vessel responds.
  4. The technician wipes the gel away. You can go back to your day right away.

For a leg artery study, the technician may also take blood pressure readings at several points on your legs and arms. This is the ankle-brachial index, and Heart South's free vascular screening pairs it with a leg ultrasound.

Risks

A Doppler ultrasound has no known risks. It uses sound waves rather than radiation, it needs no contrast dye, and it requires no needle or incision. You may feel mild pressure where the probe presses on your skin. Tell the technician if any spot is sore.

Understanding Your Results

A physician reads the images and measurements, and your care team talks with you about what the scan found.

  • Normal flow means the vessel looks open and the blood moves in the right direction at an expected speed.
  • Narrowing or a blockage shows up as slow, fast or missing flow in one area, and your doctor may suggest medicine, lifestyle changes, or a procedure such as peripheral artery angioplasty and stenting. If your doctor needs a closer picture of the vessel, they may order vascular angiography.
  • A clot is treated quickly, often with blood-thinning medicine, which your care team may follow through anticoagulation therapy and monitoring.
  • Backward flow in a vein points to leaking valves, and the Vein Center can talk with you about treatments such as endovenous ablation or sclerotherapy.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does a Doppler ultrasound hurt?

No. You may feel the cool gel and light pressure from the probe. If one spot feels tender, tell the technician.

Will I need an injection or dye?

A standard Doppler ultrasound needs no needle and no contrast dye.

How soon do I get my results?

A physician reads the study and your care team reviews it with you.

Is a Doppler ultrasound the same as an echocardiogram?

They use the same kind of sound waves. An echocardiogram looks at the heart itself, and a Doppler ultrasound looks at the blood vessels in the arms, legs and neck.

How long does a Doppler ultrasound take?

Most take 30 minutes to an hour, depending on how many vessels are checked. A scan of both legs, or of the arteries and veins together, takes longer than one area.

Who Provides It and Where

  • Heart South Cardiovascular Group performs Doppler studies of the veins and carotid arteries, along with vascular ultrasound and duplex ultrasound. Heart South has offices in Alabaster, Clanton and Centreville. To schedule, use the practice's scheduling link at heartsouthpc.com or call 205-663-5775.
  • Baptist Health Vein Center, Hoover performs venous flow studies. The Vein Center is at 5295 Preserve Pkwy, Suite 270, Hoover, AL 35244, and the phone is (205) 949-9289. The online request form creates an appointment request, and a representative follows up within two business days.

Your doctor orders the test, and the office that performs it schedules the visit.

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Comprehensive Care

Related Service Lines
Heart and Vascular Care

Vascular specialists use Doppler results to find narrowed arteries, clots and leaking veins.

Learn More About Heart and Vascular Care
Radiology and Diagnostic Imaging

Doppler ultrasound is an imaging test that shows blood moving through your vessels.

Learn More About Radiology and Diagnostic Imaging
Conditions
Peripheral artery disease

Peripheral artery disease means the arteries that bring blood to your legs have narrowed, so your legs get less blood than...

Learn More About Peripheral artery disease
Carotid artery disease

Carotid artery disease means the arteries on each side of your neck, which supply your brain, have narrowed. It often causes...

Learn More About Carotid artery disease
Deep vein thrombosis

Deep vein thrombosis, or DVT, is a blood clot in a deep vein, most often in the leg. It is treatable, and a quick, painless...

Learn More About Deep vein thrombosis
Varicose veins

Varicose veins are enlarged, twisted veins near the skin, usually in the legs, caused by weakened vein valves. They can...

Learn More About Varicose veins
Treatments
Peripheral artery angioplasty and stenting

Angioplasty and stenting open a narrowed artery in the leg or elsewhere outside the heart, using a thin tube and a tiny...

Learn More About Peripheral artery angioplasty and stenting
Vascular angiography

Vascular angiography is an X-ray test that shows the inside of your blood vessels. Your care team injects contrast dye,...

Learn More About Vascular angiography
Anticoagulation therapy and monitoring

Anticoagulants, often called blood thinners, lower the chance that a dangerous clot forms. If you take warfarin (Coumadin),...

Learn More About Anticoagulation therapy and monitoring
Endovenous ablation

Endovenous ablation closes a leaking varicose vein from the inside. Guided by ultrasound, your doctor places a thin catheter...

Learn More About Endovenous ablation
Sclerotherapy for varicose veins

Sclerotherapy treats spider veins and varicose veins with a small injection. A medicine goes into the affected vein, the...

Learn More About Sclerotherapy for varicose veins
Echocardiogram

A painless ultrasound of your heart. Sound waves make a moving picture that shows the size and thickness of your heart, how...

Learn More About Echocardiogram

References

  1. MedlinePlus. Doppler ultrasound exam of an arm or leg.
    https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/003775.htm
  2. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Peripheral Artery Disease: Diagnosis.
    https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/peripheral-artery-disease/diagnosis
  3. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Varicose Veins.
    https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/varicose-veins
  4. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Venous Thromboembolism: Diagnosis.
    https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/venous-thromboembolism/diagnosis
  5. MedlinePlus. Ultrasound.
    https://medlineplus.gov/ultrasound.html

Scheduling Your Test

Your doctor orders the test and the practice schedules it. Ask the practice that ordered it about times and preparation.

Find a Cardiologist

Vascular Angiography

Vascular angiography is an X-ray test that shows the inside of your blood vessels. Your care team injects contrast dye, takes images as it flows through your arteries or veins, and can see narrowings, blockages and other changes in your legs, neck, belly or arms.

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  • Nobody plans a NICU stay: a baby comes to one from the delivery room or by transfer between hospitals, so a button to find one serves no reader.
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MEASUREDRelated services are single service lines, in the designer's Services tab

Related services render as the Services tab of the designer's tabs module, as he drew them: six cards on a line page, each one service line on the ruled list, never two specialties under one name, each with one sentence on how that line joins a newborn's care.

  • The designer's service line and location frames show Services, Conditions and Treatments as three tabs, the Services tab holding six single-line cards with a sentence each.
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Every page uses Lufga, loaded from orlandohealth.com, at 400, 500 and 700 only. Headings 700, the hero paragraph 500, body and buttons 400.

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Pills are about 2.4 times their label tall, regular weight, with no border on solid pills; the two hero pills are equal width across the paragraph, each led by an ink icon chosen from its label. The facility hero's pills carry no icon.

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RESEARCHBreadcrumbs show a page's place in the site; a back link and the line card give the way back

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  • Breadcrumbs should show a page's place in the site's hierarchy, never the visitor's history; history trails grow long and repetitive and do nothing for a visitor who arrives from search.
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  • Tested in the demo: a parent reading condition pages could not find the way back to the Neonatal Care page.

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Decided 2026-10-21

Vascular angiography gives your care team a clear picture of the blood vessels outside the heart. A contrast material, a dye that shows up on X-ray, is injected into the bloodstream, and X-ray images follow the dye as it moves through your arteries or veins. Where a vessel is narrowed, blocked or bulging, the picture shows it.

Your doctor may suggest angiography after a Doppler ultrasound or another test points to a problem. Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, offers vascular angiography through Heart South Cardiovascular Group, and its interventional cardiologists treat vessel disease across the Alabama practices and hospitals. When the picture shows a blockage, the same team can often plan treatment in the same visit or soon after.

You will know the plan before the day, including whether a treatment such as a stent may be done during the same visit. This page covers why the test is ordered, how to get ready, what happens during it, and its risks.

What Is a Vascular Angiogram?

Vascular angiography is a test to view a radiographic image of the vascular system after a contrast material has been injected. Your vascular system is the network of arteries and veins that moves blood through your body. An angiogram can study the arteries in your legs, the carotid arteries in your neck, the aorta in your chest and belly, or the veins that return blood to your heart.

The contrast dye makes the vessel's inner channel visible. A thin tube called a catheter is usually used to place the dye right where the doctor needs to look, which gives a sharper picture than a scan taken through a vein in your arm. A CT scan can create similar images with dye given through a small IV. Heart South also lists cardiac and vascular CT angiography and CT venography among its imaging services.

Angiography that looks at the heart's own arteries is called cardiac catheterization. This page covers the vessels outside the heart.

Why a Vascular Angiogram Is Ordered

A vascular angiogram gives your doctor the most detailed view of the arteries outside the heart, so a decision about treatment rests on exactly where a narrowing, blockage or bulge is.

Who Needs One

A doctor may order vascular angiography to:

The test is usually the next step after a noninvasive test such as Doppler ultrasound has shown that blood flow in a vessel is reduced.

How to Prepare

Your care team gives you instructions for your visit. Most people are asked to:

  • Stop eating and drinking for several hours before the test.
  • Tell the team about every medicine you take, including blood thinners, diabetes medicines and over-the-counter products. Your doctor may adjust some of them for the day of the test.
  • Tell the team about any earlier reaction to contrast dye, any other allergies or asthma, and about kidney disease, because the dye passes through the kidneys.
  • Arrange for an adult to drive you home.

Wear loose clothing and leave jewelry at home.

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What Happens During the Test

Angiography is done in a procedure room, usually while you are awake.

  1. A nurse places an IV in your arm and connects monitors that follow your heart rhythm, blood pressure and oxygen level.
  2. The team cleans and numbs a small area of skin, most often at the groin or the wrist.
  3. Your doctor guides a thin catheter into the artery or vein and places the tip near the area being studied.
  4. Contrast dye is injected. You may feel warmth, a flushed feeling or a brief metallic taste for a few seconds, and this passes quickly.
  5. X-ray images are taken as the dye fills the vessels. You may be asked to hold still or hold your breath for a moment.
  6. The catheter is removed, and pressure is held on the site, or a closure device is used, to stop bleeding.

The test usually takes under an hour, and your doctor can explain the timing for your visit.

Risks

Vascular angiography is a common test, and serious problems are uncommon. Possible risks include:

  • Bruising, bleeding or soreness where the catheter went in.
  • An allergic reaction to the dye, which the team is ready to treat.
  • Kidney strain from the dye, mostly in people who already have kidney disease.
  • Rarely, damage to the blood vessel, a clot, or an irregular heartbeat during the test.

Your doctor weighs these against the value of the information, and you can ask any question before the day of the test.

Understanding Your Results

Your doctor reviews the images and talks with you about what they show. An open vessel looks like a smooth, bright channel. A narrowing shows as a pinched area, a blockage as a place where the dye stops, and an aneurysm as a bulge.

Depending on what the images show, your team may recommend medicine, lifestyle changes, a procedure to open the vessel, or follow-up imaging. If you take a blood thinner after treatment, your team may follow your dose through anticoagulation therapy and monitoring.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is vascular angiography painful?

You feel a brief sting when the area is numbed. After that, most people feel pressure at the site and warmth from the dye.

What should I do after the test?

Your team will tell you how long to rest, how to care for the site, and when to return to normal activity. Call the office if the site bleeds, swells, becomes more painful, or your leg or arm turns cold or pale. For heavy bleeding or chest pain, call 911.

Can angiography and treatment happen at the same visit?

Often, when the images show a blockage your team can treat. Your doctor will talk with you about this before the test.

How long does vascular angiography take?

The test itself usually takes under an hour, longer if a treatment is done in the same visit. Plan for several hours in all, including preparation and rest afterward.

Is the dye safe for my kidneys?

For most people, yes. The dye can strain kidneys that already work less well, so tell your team about kidney disease or diabetes. Your team may check a blood test beforehand and give you fluids to protect your kidneys.

Who Provides It and Where

  • Heart South Cardiovascular Group lists vascular angiography among its diagnostic procedures, along with carotid angiography and stenting. Heart South has offices in Alabaster, Clanton and Centreville, and its Vascular Institute provides vascular testing and treatment at 1022 1st Street North, Alabaster. To schedule, use the practice's scheduling link at heartsouthpc.com or call 205-663-5775.
  • Baptist Health hospitals with cath labs (Brookwood, Princeton, Shelby, Walker and Calhoun) support catheter-based testing.

Your doctor orders the test, and the performing team schedules it with you.

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Comprehensive Care

Related Service Lines
Heart and Vascular Care

Vascular specialists use angiography to plan and often perform treatment for a narrowed artery.

Learn More About Heart and Vascular Care
Radiology and Diagnostic Imaging

Angiography uses X-ray and contrast dye to show the arteries in detail.

Learn More About Radiology and Diagnostic Imaging
Conditions
Peripheral artery disease

Peripheral artery disease means the arteries that bring blood to your legs have narrowed, so your legs get less blood than...

Learn More About Peripheral artery disease
Carotid artery disease

Carotid artery disease means the arteries on each side of your neck, which supply your brain, have narrowed. It often causes...

Learn More About Carotid artery disease
Aortic aneurysm

An aortic aneurysm is a weakened, bulging spot in the aorta, the body's largest blood vessel. Many cause no symptoms and are...

Learn More About Aortic aneurysm
Treatments
Cardiac catheterization

Cardiac catheterization uses a thin, flexible tube guided through a blood vessel to your heart. It shows your doctor how...

Learn More About Cardiac catheterization
Peripheral artery angioplasty and stenting

Angioplasty and stenting open a narrowed artery in the leg or elsewhere outside the heart, using a thin tube and a tiny...

Learn More About Peripheral artery angioplasty and stenting
Doppler ultrasound

A Doppler ultrasound uses sound waves to show how blood moves through the veins and arteries in your arms, legs and neck. It...

Learn More About Doppler ultrasound
Anticoagulation therapy and monitoring

Anticoagulants, often called blood thinners, lower the chance that a dangerous clot forms. If you take warfarin (Coumadin),...

Learn More About Anticoagulation therapy and monitoring
Echocardiogram

A painless ultrasound of your heart. Sound waves make a moving picture that shows the size and thickness of your heart, how...

Learn More About Echocardiogram
Exercise stress test

A test that records your heart's rhythm and blood pressure while you walk on a treadmill, to show how your heart responds...

Learn More About Exercise stress test

References

  1. MedlinePlus. Coronary angiography (the catheter angiography method).
    https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/003876.htm
  2. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Peripheral Artery Disease: Diagnosis.
    https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/peripheral-artery-disease/diagnosis
  3. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Cardiac Catheterization.
    https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/cardiac-catheterization
  4. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Venous Thromboembolism: Diagnosis.
    https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/venous-thromboembolism/diagnosis

Scheduling Your Test

Your doctor orders the test and the practice schedules it. Ask the practice that ordered it about times and preparation.

Find a Cardiologist

Anticoagulation Therapy and Monitoring

Anticoagulants, often called blood thinners, lower the chance that a dangerous clot forms. If you take warfarin (Coumadin), regular blood checks guide your dose. Heart South's Coumadin clinic watches your results closely and adjusts your medicine when needed, so you stay in a safe range.

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Research and Evidence for This Page

This page's buttons: See Heart South. Care that continues: the program or practice that runs it.
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A page shows zero, one or two buttons, each reasoned from the moment its reader is in. Leads go where a real decision exists (planning a birth, a diagnosis in pregnancy, a failed screen, a follow-up specialist, a pediatrician for a healthy newborn). A page read by a parent whose baby is in a NICU now offers the page's own help and the support every NICU family gets, never a sales button. No button anywhere asks anyone to choose a NICU.

  • Nobody plans a NICU stay: a baby comes to one from the delivery room or by transfer between hospitals, so a button to find one serves no reader.
  • A baby in a NICU already has its doctors at the bedside, and most families name a pediatrician before discharge, so a pediatrician button on an apnea page sells to nobody.
  • Serving the business and serving the parent are meant to agree: where no honest lead exists, help that keeps the family with Orlando Health is the business value.
  • Two slots are a ceiling, never a quota: a filler button beside a page's one real action comes off.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDRelated services are single service lines, in the designer's Services tab

Related services render as the Services tab of the designer's tabs module, as he drew them: six cards on a line page, each one service line on the ruled list, never two specialties under one name, each with one sentence on how that line joins a newborn's care.

  • The designer's service line and location frames show Services, Conditions and Treatments as three tabs, the Services tab holding six single-line cards with a sentence each.
  • The ruled list of children's service lines carries pediatric hematology and pediatric oncology, pulmonology and sleep medicine, neurology and neurosurgery as separate lines; a combined name matches no page that will exist.
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Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDThe page is set in Lufga, the typeface Orlando Health uses, at its three weights

Every page uses Lufga, loaded from orlandohealth.com, at 400, 500 and 700 only. Headings 700, the hero paragraph 500, body and buttons 400.

  • Read on orlandohealth.com, 2026-10-20: the site loads Lufga in three files, Regular 400, Medium 500 and Bold 700, and sets its headings at 700.
  • The designer's frames are set in the same face; an earlier build used a stand-in, which is why its weights read differently beside his frames.

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Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDButtons are the designer's slim pills, with an icon in the hero

Pills are about 2.4 times their label tall, regular weight, with no border on solid pills; the two hero pills are equal width across the paragraph, each led by an ink icon chosen from its label. The facility hero's pills carry no icon.

  • Measured across the designer's frames: every pill is 2.3 to 2.5 times its label tall, and the hero pills carry a calendar or a phone before the label.
  • A gate checks every rendered pill against these proportions.

Decided 2026-10-20

RESEARCHBreadcrumbs show a page's place in the site; a back link and the line card give the way back

A library page's breadcrumbs follow its address (Home, Health Library, Conditions, the page), because one condition page serves every line that treats it. The way back to the line comes from two other places: the first card in the page's Services tab is the line itself, always; and a visitor who arrived from a line, unit, team or program page also sees a Back link at the right of the crumb bar, naming that page.

  • Breadcrumbs should show a page's place in the site's hierarchy, never the visitor's history; history trails grow long and repetitive and do nothing for a visitor who arrives from search.
  • A page with more than one parent shows one canonical trail for everyone, which keeps the page's signal to search engines consistent.
  • A separate link back to where the visitor came from is a common pattern (a store's Back to Results) and leaves the canonical trail untouched.
  • Tested in the demo: a parent reading condition pages could not find the way back to the Neonatal Care page.

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Decided 2026-10-21

If your doctor prescribed a blood thinner, you have probably heard two things: take it every day, and come back for blood tests. Both matter. An anticoagulant slows your blood's ability to clot. That protects people from clots that cause stroke, deep vein thrombosis and other blockages, and a small adjustment in dose can make the difference between protection and risk.

Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, supports people on blood thinners through Heart South Cardiovascular Group's Coumadin clinic. The clinic closely monitors patients who take Coumadin, the brand name for warfarin, which keeps the blood from clotting. The team checks your blood, reviews your results and changes your dose when necessary, so that you do not have to guess.

This page covers how blood thinners work, what they are used for, what to check before you start, what monitoring and daily life look like, and the side effects to watch for.

What Is Anticoagulation Therapy and How Does It Work?

Anticoagulation therapy is treatment with a medicine that makes your blood slower to clot. The medicines are often called blood thinners, although they do not make blood thinner. They lengthen the time it takes a clot to form.

Warfarin, sold as Coumadin, is one of the most widely used. Its effect changes with your diet, your other medicines and your health, so it needs regular monitoring. The blood test used is the prothrombin time, reported as the INR (international normalized ratio). Your doctor sets a target INR range for you. Below the range, you may not be protected from clots. Above it, your risk of bleeding goes up.

Kinds of Anticoagulation Therapy

There are two main groups of blood thinners taken by mouth. Warfarin needs regular INR checks and attention to vitamin K in food. The newer direct oral anticoagulants, such as apixaban, rivaroxaban, dabigatran and edoxaban, do not need routine INR checks and have fewer food interactions, though they are not right for everyone, including people with a mechanical heart valve. Your doctor chooses the one that fits your condition. The Heart South Coumadin clinic focuses on patients who take Coumadin.

What Anticoagulation Therapy Is Used For

Doctors prescribe anticoagulants to lower the risk of dangerous clots in situations such as:

  • Atrial fibrillation, where an irregular rhythm lets blood pool in the heart and form clots that can travel to the brain.
  • A clot in a leg vein (deep vein thrombosis) or in the lung (pulmonary embolism).
  • A mechanical heart valve, or certain other heart valve conditions.
  • Recovery after some heart or vessel procedures.

Before You Start

Before you begin treatment, tell your care team about all your medicines, vitamins and herbal products, because many change how warfarin works. Mention any history of bleeding, stomach ulcers, falls, or planned surgery or dental work.

Bring your medicine list and your last INR results to your first clinic visit. Ask about foods rich in vitamin K, such as leafy green vegetables. You can eat them, and the aim is to keep the amount you eat about the same from week to week.

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What to Expect

Monitoring Visits

Coumadin management includes frequent blood checks and changes to the dose of medication when necessary. A typical visit follows these steps:

  1. A team member checks your INR with a blood sample.
  2. They ask about changes since your last visit: new medicines, illness, diet, bleeding or bruising, missed doses, and upcoming procedures.
  3. They compare your INR with your target range and tell you your dose for the coming days.
  4. They schedule your next check. Visits are closer together when you start treatment or when your results move out of range, and further apart once your INR stays in range.

Take your medicine at the same time each day, and change your dose only when your care team tells you to.

Daily Life on a Blood Thinner

  • Keep every INR appointment. Regular checks are how the clinic keeps your dose right.
  • Tell every doctor, dentist and pharmacist that you take a blood thinner before any new medicine, procedure or tooth extraction.
  • Check with your care team before taking pain relievers such as aspirin or ibuprofen, and before starting any supplement.
  • Wear a medical alert bracelet or keep a card in your wallet that lists your medicine.
  • Use a soft toothbrush and an electric razor, and take care with sharp tools and with steps and rugs at home.

Side Effects and Risks

The main risk of any blood thinner is bleeding. Most bleeding is minor, such as nosebleeds, bleeding gums or easy bruising. Call your care team if these happen often or last longer than usual.

Call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room right away for:

  • Bleeding that does not stop after 10 minutes of firm pressure
  • Vomit that is red or looks like coffee grounds, or black or bloody stools
  • A fall or blow to the head, even if you feel fine
  • A sudden severe headache, confusion, weakness on one side, or trouble speaking
  • Coughing up blood

A dose that is too low can leave you open to a clot, so missing doses matters too.

Frequently Asked Questions

How often will I need blood tests?

Often at first, then less often as your INR stays inside your target range. Your care team sets the schedule for you.

What if I miss a dose?

Call the clinic for advice. Do not double the next dose unless your care team tells you to.

Can I drink alcohol on warfarin?

Alcohol can change how warfarin works. Ask your care team what is safe for you.

Does it ever stop?

Some people take a blood thinner for a few months and some for life. Your doctor reviews your need over time.

Who manages complex clotting problems?

Hematologists cover complex clotting cases at all Baptist Health facilities.

Who Provides It and Where

  • Heart South Cardiovascular Group runs the Coumadin clinic, with offices in Alabaster, Clanton and Centreville. To schedule, use the practice's scheduling link at heartsouthpc.com or call 205-663-5775.
  • Hematology at Baptist Health hospitals supports patients with complex clotting concerns.
  • If you take a blood thinner after a procedure such as peripheral artery angioplasty and stenting or cardioversion, your care team tells you who follows your dose.
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[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
[Doctor Name 2], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
[Doctor Name 3], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
123›

Comprehensive Care

Related Service Lines
Heart and Vascular Care

Cardiologists prescribe blood thinners for AFib, clots and mechanical valves, and monitor the dose.

Learn More About Heart and Vascular Care
Pulmonary and Critical Care

Blood thinners are the main treatment for a clot in the lungs, a pulmonary embolism.

Learn More About Pulmonary and Critical Care
Neuroscience

For AFib, blood thinners are what lower the risk of a stroke.

Learn More About Neuroscience
Conditions
Deep vein thrombosis

Deep vein thrombosis, or DVT, is a blood clot in a deep vein, most often in the leg. It is treatable, and a quick, painless...

Learn More About Deep vein thrombosis
Atrial fibrillation

Atrial fibrillation, or AFib, is the most common heart rhythm problem: the upper chambers beat in a fast, irregular pattern....

Learn More About Atrial fibrillation
Heart valve disease

Heart valve disease means one or more of the heart's four valves does not open or close as it should. Many people are...

Learn More About Heart valve disease
Treatments
Peripheral artery angioplasty and stenting

Angioplasty and stenting open a narrowed artery in the leg or elsewhere outside the heart, using a thin tube and a tiny...

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Cardioversion

Cardioversion resets a heart that is beating too fast or out of rhythm, most often in atrial fibrillation. You are given...

Learn More About Cardioversion
Cardiac rehabilitation

A medically supervised program of exercise, education and support that helps you rebuild strength after a heart attack, a...

Learn More About Cardiac rehabilitation

References

  1. MedlinePlus Drug Information. Warfarin.
    https://medlineplus.gov/druginfo/meds/a682277.html
  2. MedlinePlus. Blood Thinners.
    https://medlineplus.gov/bloodthinners.html
  3. MedlinePlus. Prothrombin time (PT) test.
    https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/003652.htm
  4. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Venous Thromboembolism: Treatment.
    https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/venous-thromboembolism/treatment

Ongoing Heart Care

Our practices and hospitals continue your care after a diagnosis or a procedure.

Find a Cardiologist

Endovenous Ablation

Endovenous ablation closes a leaking varicose vein from the inside. Guided by ultrasound, your doctor places a thin catheter in the vein and heats its wall, and blood reroutes through healthy veins. The procedure takes place in the office, and most people walk out afterward and return to daily life within days.

Medically Reviewed Content
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Research and Evidence for This Page

This page's buttons: Find a Vein Specialist. Read by someone weighing a procedure: the practice that performs it when only one does, otherwise the doctor finder for a first consultation or a second opinion.
RULINGEvery page's buttons are chosen for the reader who lands on it

A page shows zero, one or two buttons, each reasoned from the moment its reader is in. Leads go where a real decision exists (planning a birth, a diagnosis in pregnancy, a failed screen, a follow-up specialist, a pediatrician for a healthy newborn). A page read by a parent whose baby is in a NICU now offers the page's own help and the support every NICU family gets, never a sales button. No button anywhere asks anyone to choose a NICU.

  • Nobody plans a NICU stay: a baby comes to one from the delivery room or by transfer between hospitals, so a button to find one serves no reader.
  • A baby in a NICU already has its doctors at the bedside, and most families name a pediatrician before discharge, so a pediatrician button on an apnea page sells to nobody.
  • Serving the business and serving the parent are meant to agree: where no honest lead exists, help that keeps the family with Orlando Health is the business value.
  • Two slots are a ceiling, never a quota: a filler button beside a page's one real action comes off.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDRelated services are single service lines, in the designer's Services tab

Related services render as the Services tab of the designer's tabs module, as he drew them: six cards on a line page, each one service line on the ruled list, never two specialties under one name, each with one sentence on how that line joins a newborn's care.

  • The designer's service line and location frames show Services, Conditions and Treatments as three tabs, the Services tab holding six single-line cards with a sentence each.
  • The ruled list of children's service lines carries pediatric hematology and pediatric oncology, pulmonology and sleep medicine, neurology and neurosurgery as separate lines; a combined name matches no page that will exist.
  • A gate refuses any service card whose name is not a ruled line.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDThe page is set in Lufga, the typeface Orlando Health uses, at its three weights

Every page uses Lufga, loaded from orlandohealth.com, at 400, 500 and 700 only. Headings 700, the hero paragraph 500, body and buttons 400.

  • Read on orlandohealth.com, 2026-10-20: the site loads Lufga in three files, Regular 400, Medium 500 and Bold 700, and sets its headings at 700.
  • The designer's frames are set in the same face; an earlier build used a stand-in, which is why its weights read differently beside his frames.

Sources

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDButtons are the designer's slim pills, with an icon in the hero

Pills are about 2.4 times their label tall, regular weight, with no border on solid pills; the two hero pills are equal width across the paragraph, each led by an ink icon chosen from its label. The facility hero's pills carry no icon.

  • Measured across the designer's frames: every pill is 2.3 to 2.5 times its label tall, and the hero pills carry a calendar or a phone before the label.
  • A gate checks every rendered pill against these proportions.

Decided 2026-10-20

RESEARCHBreadcrumbs show a page's place in the site; a back link and the line card give the way back

A library page's breadcrumbs follow its address (Home, Health Library, Conditions, the page), because one condition page serves every line that treats it. The way back to the line comes from two other places: the first card in the page's Services tab is the line itself, always; and a visitor who arrived from a line, unit, team or program page also sees a Back link at the right of the crumb bar, naming that page.

  • Breadcrumbs should show a page's place in the site's hierarchy, never the visitor's history; history trails grow long and repetitive and do nothing for a visitor who arrives from search.
  • A page with more than one parent shows one canonical trail for everyone, which keeps the page's signal to search engines consistent.
  • A separate link back to where the visitor came from is a common pattern (a store's Back to Results) and leaves the canonical trail untouched.
  • Tested in the demo: a parent reading condition pages could not find the way back to the Neonatal Care page.

Sources

Decided 2026-10-21

Veins in your legs have small valves that keep blood moving up toward your heart. When those valves weaken, blood leaks backward and pools. The vein stretches, bulges and can cause aching, heaviness, swelling, burning or itching, and sometimes skin changes or sores. Endovenous ablation treats the source: it closes the leaking vein so blood no longer collects there.

Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, offers endovenous ablation at the Baptist Health Vein Center in Hoover and through Heart South Cardiovascular Group's vein center. Both practices treat varicose veins and other vein conditions with minimally invasive options that aim to ease pain and shorten recovery.

Treatment starts with a visit and an ultrasound of your legs, so your doctor can see which veins are leaking and whether ablation is the right fit. This page covers why it is performed, how to get ready, what the visit and the weeks after look like, and the risks to weigh.

What Is Endovenous Ablation?

Endovenous means inside the vein, and ablation means removing or closing by treatment. In this procedure a doctor uses ultrasound to guide a thin tube, called a catheter, into the diseased vein through a small opening in the skin. Energy from the tip of the catheter heats the vein wall, and the vein closes. After the vein closes, your body gradually absorbs it. The blood that used to flow through it takes other routes through healthy veins in the leg.

Kinds of Endovenous Ablation

Heart South describes radiofrequency (RF) ablation, which delivers controlled heat to the vein wall and causes the vein to close. Laser energy is a second way to heat the vein, and both are called thermal ablation.

Why Endovenous Ablation Is Performed

Endovenous ablation closes a leaking main vein in the leg so blood stops pooling there. The aim is to ease aching, heaviness and swelling, and to help skin changes and sores near the ankle heal and stay healed.

Who Is a Candidate

Your doctor may recommend ablation when a main leg vein is leaking and causing symptoms or complications of varicose veins, such as:

  • Leg pain, aching, heaviness or swelling
  • Restless or cramping legs
  • Burning or itching of the skin
  • Skin discoloration, or skin breakdown and wounds near the ankle

Before recommending ablation, your doctor confirms which vein is leaking with a duplex ultrasound. You stand for this scan while a technician moves a probe over your legs, and the images reveal where valves are leaking. See Doppler ultrasound for what to expect. Ablation suits a leaking trunk vein, while smaller surface veins are often treated with sclerotherapy or phlebectomy, sometimes in the same treatment plan.

How to Prepare

Your vein team gives you written instructions, and these usually cover:

  • Medicines. Tell your team about every medicine, especially blood thinners, and follow their advice on whether to continue them.
  • Clothing. Wear loose clothing, and bring or buy compression stockings if your team asks you to.
  • A ride. Ask whether you should arrange a ride home.
  • Skin care. Do not apply lotion to your legs on the day of the procedure.
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

[Resource Headline]

[Optional Sub-Heading]

[Brief description of the resource]

[Resource Download/Access][Optional Secondary CTA]

What to Expect

During the Procedure

The procedure is done in the office, and numbing medicine keeps the treated leg free of pain.

  1. You lie on an exam table, and the team cleans the leg.
  2. Ultrasound shows the vein, and your doctor numbs a small spot of skin.
  3. Your doctor places the catheter into the vein through a small opening in the skin and moves its tip to the starting point, guided by ultrasound.
  4. Numbing fluid is placed around the vein.
  5. The catheter delivers heat to the vein wall as your doctor slowly pulls it back, and the vein closes along its length.
  6. The catheter comes out, a small bandage covers the spot, and a compression wrap or stocking goes on.

After the Procedure

You rest for a short time while the team checks your leg, then you get up and walk. The leg may feel tight or bruised along the treated vein for a week or two, which is expected as it heals.

Recovery

Most people go home the same day and walk soon afterward, and your team encourages walking daily. You will likely wear a compression stocking for a period your team sets.

Avoid long periods of standing or staying seated and heavy lifting until your doctor says you can resume. Many people see their legs improve over the weeks after treatment as the closed vein is absorbed. A follow-up visit, often with an ultrasound, confirms the vein has closed.

Risks and Complications

Serious problems are uncommon. Possible effects include:

  • Bruising, tenderness or tightness along the treated vein
  • Numbness or tingling in a small patch of skin
  • Inflammation of the vein (phlebitis)
  • Skin burns or a blood clot in a deep vein, both rare
  • A vein that stays open and needs more treatment

Your doctor reviews these with you before the procedure. Call your vein team if pain, redness or swelling grows, and call 911 for chest pain or shortness of breath.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does endovenous ablation hurt?

Numbing medicine keeps the area free of pain. Most people feel pressure or a pulling feeling, and afterward some soreness along the vein.

Will the vein come back?

The closed vein is absorbed by the body. New varicose veins can form over time, and your team will talk with you about follow-up.

Is this a cosmetic procedure?

It treats a medical cause of leg pain, swelling and skin changes, and it also improves how veins look.

How is it different from sclerotherapy?

Ablation closes a larger leaking vein with heat from a catheter. Sclerotherapy closes smaller veins by injecting a medicine.

Will I need more than one treatment?

Some people do. If more than one vein is leaking, or smaller surface veins remain, your doctor may plan more than one session or add sclerotherapy or phlebectomy. Your follow-up ultrasound shows what, if anything, is left to treat.

Who Provides It and Where

  • Baptist Health Vein Center, Hoover at 5295 Preserve Pkwy, Suite 270, Hoover, AL 35244, phone (205) 949-9289. The team includes John Eagan, MD and Kathleen Sentell, PA, with two ultrasound technicians. Use the online request form, and a representative follows up within two business days.
  • Heart South Cardiovascular Group treats vein conditions at its vein center in the Heart South Vascular Institute, with a free vascular screening available. Schedule at heartsouthpc.com or call 205-663-5775.
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[n] doctors foundMany doctors have multiple practice locations. View the doctor's profile for a complete list of their locationsSort By: A to Z
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[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
[Doctor Name 2], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group Member[Location]
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Comprehensive Care

Related Service Lines
Heart and Vascular Care

Vein specialists use ablation to close a leaking main leg vein from the inside.

Learn More About Heart and Vascular Care
Conditions
Varicose veins

Varicose veins are enlarged, twisted veins near the skin, usually in the legs, caused by weakened vein valves. They can...

Learn More About Varicose veins
Treatments
Doppler ultrasound

A Doppler ultrasound uses sound waves to show how blood moves through the veins and arteries in your arms, legs and neck. It...

Learn More About Doppler ultrasound
Sclerotherapy for varicose veins

Sclerotherapy treats spider veins and varicose veins with a small injection. A medicine goes into the affected vein, the...

Learn More About Sclerotherapy for varicose veins
Phlebectomy

Phlebectomy removes varicose veins through tiny punctures or small cuts in the skin. Numbing medicine keeps the area free of...

Learn More About Phlebectomy
Peripheral artery angioplasty and stenting

Angioplasty and stenting open a narrowed artery in the leg or elsewhere outside the heart, using a thin tube and a tiny...

Learn More About Peripheral artery angioplasty and stenting

References

  1. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Varicose Veins.
    https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/varicose-veins
  2. MedlinePlus. Varicose Veins and Spider Veins.
    https://medlineplus.gov/varicoseveins.html
  3. MedlinePlus. Ultrasound.
    https://medlineplus.gov/ultrasound.html

Talk With a Specialist

A first consultation or a second opinion starts with the practice that performs the procedure.

Find a Cardiologist

Sclerotherapy for Varicose Veins

Sclerotherapy treats spider veins and varicose veins with a small injection. A medicine goes into the affected vein, the vein shrinks, and blood moves through healthier veins. Visits are short, and some people need a series of treatments to reach the result they want.

Medically Reviewed Content
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Research and Evidence for This Page

This page's buttons: Find a Vein Specialist. Read by someone weighing a procedure: the practice that performs it when only one does, otherwise the doctor finder for a first consultation or a second opinion.
RULINGEvery page's buttons are chosen for the reader who lands on it

A page shows zero, one or two buttons, each reasoned from the moment its reader is in. Leads go where a real decision exists (planning a birth, a diagnosis in pregnancy, a failed screen, a follow-up specialist, a pediatrician for a healthy newborn). A page read by a parent whose baby is in a NICU now offers the page's own help and the support every NICU family gets, never a sales button. No button anywhere asks anyone to choose a NICU.

  • Nobody plans a NICU stay: a baby comes to one from the delivery room or by transfer between hospitals, so a button to find one serves no reader.
  • A baby in a NICU already has its doctors at the bedside, and most families name a pediatrician before discharge, so a pediatrician button on an apnea page sells to nobody.
  • Serving the business and serving the parent are meant to agree: where no honest lead exists, help that keeps the family with Orlando Health is the business value.
  • Two slots are a ceiling, never a quota: a filler button beside a page's one real action comes off.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDRelated services are single service lines, in the designer's Services tab

Related services render as the Services tab of the designer's tabs module, as he drew them: six cards on a line page, each one service line on the ruled list, never two specialties under one name, each with one sentence on how that line joins a newborn's care.

  • The designer's service line and location frames show Services, Conditions and Treatments as three tabs, the Services tab holding six single-line cards with a sentence each.
  • The ruled list of children's service lines carries pediatric hematology and pediatric oncology, pulmonology and sleep medicine, neurology and neurosurgery as separate lines; a combined name matches no page that will exist.
  • A gate refuses any service card whose name is not a ruled line.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDThe page is set in Lufga, the typeface Orlando Health uses, at its three weights

Every page uses Lufga, loaded from orlandohealth.com, at 400, 500 and 700 only. Headings 700, the hero paragraph 500, body and buttons 400.

  • Read on orlandohealth.com, 2026-10-20: the site loads Lufga in three files, Regular 400, Medium 500 and Bold 700, and sets its headings at 700.
  • The designer's frames are set in the same face; an earlier build used a stand-in, which is why its weights read differently beside his frames.

Sources

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDButtons are the designer's slim pills, with an icon in the hero

Pills are about 2.4 times their label tall, regular weight, with no border on solid pills; the two hero pills are equal width across the paragraph, each led by an ink icon chosen from its label. The facility hero's pills carry no icon.

  • Measured across the designer's frames: every pill is 2.3 to 2.5 times its label tall, and the hero pills carry a calendar or a phone before the label.
  • A gate checks every rendered pill against these proportions.

Decided 2026-10-20

RESEARCHBreadcrumbs show a page's place in the site; a back link and the line card give the way back

A library page's breadcrumbs follow its address (Home, Health Library, Conditions, the page), because one condition page serves every line that treats it. The way back to the line comes from two other places: the first card in the page's Services tab is the line itself, always; and a visitor who arrived from a line, unit, team or program page also sees a Back link at the right of the crumb bar, naming that page.

  • Breadcrumbs should show a page's place in the site's hierarchy, never the visitor's history; history trails grow long and repetitive and do nothing for a visitor who arrives from search.
  • A page with more than one parent shows one canonical trail for everyone, which keeps the page's signal to search engines consistent.
  • A separate link back to where the visitor came from is a common pattern (a store's Back to Results) and leaves the canonical trail untouched.
  • Tested in the demo: a parent reading condition pages could not find the way back to the Neonatal Care page.

Sources

Decided 2026-10-21

Spider veins are small purplish or blue clusters near the skin, and they usually cause no discomfort. Varicose veins are larger, bluish veins that often rise above the skin on the legs and can bring pain, aching, heaviness, restless legs, and burning or itching of the skin. Sclerotherapy is an effective treatment for both.

The treatment is an injection. Your doctor places a medicine in the affected veins, which shrinks them. Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, offers sclerotherapy, including ultrasound-guided sclerotherapy, at the Baptist Health Vein Center in Hoover and through Heart South Cardiovascular Group's vein center.

Treatment starts with a visit, and often an ultrasound of your legs, so your doctor can see which veins are involved and whether sclerotherapy alone fits or works best alongside another vein treatment. This page covers why it is performed, how to get ready, what a session and the weeks after look like, and the risks to weigh.

What Is Sclerotherapy?

Sclerotherapy is a procedure that closes a vein with an injected medicine. The medicine, called a sclerosing agent, irritates the inside of the vein wall. The vein walls then stick together and seal, and over the following weeks the body absorbs the closed vein. Blood that used to flow through it moves through other veins nearby.

Your doctor may use a liquid or a foam form of the medicine. For veins deeper under the skin, the team can use ultrasound to see the vein and guide the needle to the right spot. This is called ultrasound-guided sclerotherapy.

Some people need a series of treatments, since each visit treats one area and larger veins may need more than one session.

Why Sclerotherapy Is Performed

Sclerotherapy closes small and medium surface veins so blood moves through healthier veins instead. The aim is to ease aching and burning, and to clear veins that bother you for how they look.

Who Is a Candidate

Your doctor may recommend sclerotherapy to:

  • Ease the pain, aching, heaviness or burning that varicose veins cause
  • Treat spider veins that bother you for how they look
  • Treat smaller surface veins that remain after a larger leaking vein has been closed with endovenous ablation

A duplex ultrasound often comes first. It shows which veins are leaking and which treatment fits, as described on the Doppler ultrasound page. Larger varicose veins sometimes call for other options, such as phlebectomy, which removes a vein through small punctures.

How to Prepare

Your team gives you instructions for your visit. Common ones include:

  • Tell your team about your medicines, any history of blood clots, allergies, and whether you may be pregnant.
  • Wear loose shorts or a garment that gives easy access to your legs.
  • Skip lotions, oils and sun exposure on the treated area before the visit.
  • Bring compression stockings if your team has asked you to.
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

[Resource Headline]

[Optional Sub-Heading]

[Brief description of the resource]

[Resource Download/Access][Optional Secondary CTA]

What to Expect

During the Procedure

A session is brief and takes place in the office.

  1. You lie down with your leg raised, and the team cleans the skin.
  2. Your doctor injects the medicine into the vein with a very fine needle. If ultrasound guidance is used, the doctor watches the needle and the vein on the screen.
  3. You may feel a brief sting or cramping as the medicine goes in.
  4. The doctor may rub the area, and a bandage or compression wrap goes on.
  5. You walk around before you leave. Your team tells you how soon to return for the next session, if you need one.

After the Procedure

You can usually walk right away and return to most routines the same day.

Recovery

Your team will likely ask you to wear compression stockings for a period and to walk each day. Avoid hot baths, saunas and long periods of standing for the time your team suggests.

Treated veins often look worse for a short time as they bruise, then fade over weeks. Results build over the following weeks, and some veins need another session.

Many people need two or more sessions, a few weeks apart, to reach the result they want. Your doctor tells you how many to expect for your veins and when to come back.

Risks and Complications

Sclerotherapy is a common treatment, and most effects are mild. They can include:

  • Bruising, itching or tenderness at the injection sites
  • Darkened skin along the treated vein, which usually fades over time
  • Small red clusters of new tiny veins near the treated area
  • Rarely, a skin sore, an allergic reaction, or a blood clot

Call your vein team if you have increasing pain, redness or swelling. Call 911 for chest pain, trouble breathing, or sudden swelling of one leg with pain.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is sclerotherapy only for looks?

No. It is also used to treat the symptoms varicose veins cause, such as aching, heaviness, and burning or itching of the skin.

How many treatments will I need?

It varies. Some people need a series of treatments, and your doctor will give you an estimate after looking at your veins.

Does it hurt?

The needle is very fine. Most people feel a sting and some cramping for a moment as the medicine goes in.

Can the veins come back?

A treated vein usually stays closed, though some veins reopen and need another session, and new veins can appear over time, so your team talks with you about follow-up.

Can new spider veins appear after treatment?

Yes. Sclerotherapy treats the veins you have now, and new ones can form over time, especially with a family history of vein disease. Walking, staying at a healthy weight and wearing compression stockings when your team suggests them can help.

Who Provides It and Where

  • Baptist Health Vein Center, Hoover at 5295 Preserve Pkwy, Suite 270, Hoover, AL 35244, phone (205) 949-9289. The team includes John Eagan, MD and Kathleen Sentell, PA. Use the online request form, and a representative follows up within two business days.
  • Heart South Cardiovascular Group offers sclerotherapy, including ultrasound-guided sclerotherapy, at its vein center in the Heart South Vascular Institute. It offers a free vascular screening. Schedule at heartsouthpc.com or call 205-663-5775.
Type a city or zip code
Use My Location
Type a doctor's first or last name
Female Male
View Doctors with Online Scheduling
[n] doctors foundMany doctors have multiple practice locations. View the doctor's profile for a complete list of their locationsSort By: A to Z
[Doctor Name 1], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
[Doctor Name 2], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
[Doctor Name 3], MD CardiologyOH Medical Group Member[Location]
[Address Line]
[City], FL [Zip]
000-000-0000Online Scheduling Available
123›

Comprehensive Care

Related Service Lines
Heart and Vascular Care

Vein specialists treat spider and varicose veins with injections, alone or with other vein care.

Learn More About Heart and Vascular Care
Conditions
Varicose veins

Varicose veins are enlarged, twisted veins near the skin, usually in the legs, caused by weakened vein valves. They can...

Learn More About Varicose veins
Treatments
Endovenous ablation

Endovenous ablation closes a leaking varicose vein from the inside. Guided by ultrasound, your doctor places a thin catheter...

Learn More About Endovenous ablation
Doppler ultrasound

A Doppler ultrasound uses sound waves to show how blood moves through the veins and arteries in your arms, legs and neck. It...

Learn More About Doppler ultrasound
Phlebectomy

Phlebectomy removes varicose veins through tiny punctures or small cuts in the skin. Numbing medicine keeps the area free of...

Learn More About Phlebectomy
Peripheral artery angioplasty and stenting

Angioplasty and stenting open a narrowed artery in the leg or elsewhere outside the heart, using a thin tube and a tiny...

Learn More About Peripheral artery angioplasty and stenting

References

  1. MedlinePlus. Varicose Veins and Spider Veins.
    https://medlineplus.gov/varicoseveins.html
  2. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Varicose Veins.
    https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/varicose-veins
  3. MedlinePlus. Ultrasound.
    https://medlineplus.gov/ultrasound.html

Talk With a Specialist

A first consultation or a second opinion starts with the practice that performs the procedure.

Find a Cardiologist

Phlebectomy

Phlebectomy removes varicose veins through tiny punctures or small cuts in the skin. Numbing medicine keeps the area free of pain, and the procedure treats bulging surface veins that cause aching, heaviness and swelling. Many people go home the same day and walk right away.

Medically Reviewed Content
Placeholder from the Orlando Health image library

Research and Evidence for This Page

This page's buttons: Find a Vein Specialist. Read by someone weighing a procedure: the practice that performs it when only one does, otherwise the doctor finder for a first consultation or a second opinion.
RULINGEvery page's buttons are chosen for the reader who lands on it

A page shows zero, one or two buttons, each reasoned from the moment its reader is in. Leads go where a real decision exists (planning a birth, a diagnosis in pregnancy, a failed screen, a follow-up specialist, a pediatrician for a healthy newborn). A page read by a parent whose baby is in a NICU now offers the page's own help and the support every NICU family gets, never a sales button. No button anywhere asks anyone to choose a NICU.

  • Nobody plans a NICU stay: a baby comes to one from the delivery room or by transfer between hospitals, so a button to find one serves no reader.
  • A baby in a NICU already has its doctors at the bedside, and most families name a pediatrician before discharge, so a pediatrician button on an apnea page sells to nobody.
  • Serving the business and serving the parent are meant to agree: where no honest lead exists, help that keeps the family with Orlando Health is the business value.
  • Two slots are a ceiling, never a quota: a filler button beside a page's one real action comes off.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDRelated services are single service lines, in the designer's Services tab

Related services render as the Services tab of the designer's tabs module, as he drew them: six cards on a line page, each one service line on the ruled list, never two specialties under one name, each with one sentence on how that line joins a newborn's care.

  • The designer's service line and location frames show Services, Conditions and Treatments as three tabs, the Services tab holding six single-line cards with a sentence each.
  • The ruled list of children's service lines carries pediatric hematology and pediatric oncology, pulmonology and sleep medicine, neurology and neurosurgery as separate lines; a combined name matches no page that will exist.
  • A gate refuses any service card whose name is not a ruled line.

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDThe page is set in Lufga, the typeface Orlando Health uses, at its three weights

Every page uses Lufga, loaded from orlandohealth.com, at 400, 500 and 700 only. Headings 700, the hero paragraph 500, body and buttons 400.

  • Read on orlandohealth.com, 2026-10-20: the site loads Lufga in three files, Regular 400, Medium 500 and Bold 700, and sets its headings at 700.
  • The designer's frames are set in the same face; an earlier build used a stand-in, which is why its weights read differently beside his frames.

Sources

Decided 2026-10-20

MEASUREDButtons are the designer's slim pills, with an icon in the hero

Pills are about 2.4 times their label tall, regular weight, with no border on solid pills; the two hero pills are equal width across the paragraph, each led by an ink icon chosen from its label. The facility hero's pills carry no icon.

  • Measured across the designer's frames: every pill is 2.3 to 2.5 times its label tall, and the hero pills carry a calendar or a phone before the label.
  • A gate checks every rendered pill against these proportions.

Decided 2026-10-20

RESEARCHBreadcrumbs show a page's place in the site; a back link and the line card give the way back

A library page's breadcrumbs follow its address (Home, Health Library, Conditions, the page), because one condition page serves every line that treats it. The way back to the line comes from two other places: the first card in the page's Services tab is the line itself, always; and a visitor who arrived from a line, unit, team or program page also sees a Back link at the right of the crumb bar, naming that page.

  • Breadcrumbs should show a page's place in the site's hierarchy, never the visitor's history; history trails grow long and repetitive and do nothing for a visitor who arrives from search.
  • A page with more than one parent shows one canonical trail for everyone, which keeps the page's signal to search engines consistent.
  • A separate link back to where the visitor came from is a common pattern (a store's Back to Results) and leaves the canonical trail untouched.
  • Tested in the demo: a parent reading condition pages could not find the way back to the Neonatal Care page.

Sources

Decided 2026-10-21

Some varicose veins bulge so far above the skin that closing them is not the best fit. For those veins, a doctor can take them out. Phlebectomy is the removal of varicose veins through small punctures or incisions in the skin. The openings are tiny, and many are small enough that they need no stitches.

Baptist Health, part of Orlando Health, offers phlebectomy through Heart South Cardiovascular Group's vein center, and the Baptist Health Vein Center in Hoover offers the full range of vein procedures.

Treatment starts with a visit and an ultrasound of your legs, so your doctor can map which veins to remove and whether another vein treatment should come first. This page covers why it is performed, how to get ready, what the visit and the weeks after look like, and the risks to weigh.

What Is Phlebectomy?

Phlebectomy, sometimes called ambulatory phlebectomy, is a procedure that removes varicose veins close to the skin. Your doctor makes a very small opening over the vein, lifts the vein out through it with a fine hook, and removes it in sections. The word ambulatory means you walk in and walk out.

Removing the surface vein does not stop blood from reaching your leg. Healthy veins deeper in the leg return the blood to your heart, and the removed veins were doing little of that work.

Why Phlebectomy Is Performed

Phlebectomy removes bulging surface veins so blood no longer pools in them. The aim is to ease aching, heaviness and tenderness, and many people also like how their legs look afterward.

Who Is a Candidate

Your doctor may recommend phlebectomy for larger, bulging varicose veins that cause:

  • Pain, aching or heaviness in the leg
  • Burning or itching of the skin
  • Restless or cramping legs
  • Veins that catch on clothing or feel tender to the touch

Phlebectomy is often one part of a plan. A doctor may first close a leaking trunk vein with endovenous ablation and then remove the bulging branch veins that remain, or treat smaller surface veins with sclerotherapy. A duplex ultrasound maps the veins first. See Doppler ultrasound for what that scan involves.

How to Prepare

Your team gives you instructions for your visit. Common ones include:

  • Tell your team about your medicines, especially blood thinners, and any allergies, including allergy to numbing medicine.
  • Wear loose clothing that you can raise or remove easily from the leg.
  • Arrange for someone to drive you home if your team recommends it.
  • Bring compression stockings if your team has asked you to.

Before the visit, your doctor may mark the veins on your skin while you stand, because bulging veins flatten when you lie down.

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What to Expect

During the Procedure

The procedure takes place in the office.

  1. You lie on an exam table, and the team cleans your leg.
  2. Your doctor numbs the area with a local anesthetic, placed around the veins. You may feel a brief sting.
  3. Your doctor makes tiny punctures or small incisions in the skin along the vein.
  4. The doctor lifts out the vein through each opening and removes it.
  5. The team covers the openings with small bandages and applies a compression wrap or stocking.

Because the area is numb, you may feel pulling or pressure but little pain.

After the Procedure

Most people go home the same day and are encouraged to walk soon afterward. You will likely wear a compression wrap or stocking for a period your team sets, and you will need to keep the openings clean and dry for the first days.

Recovery

Bruising and soreness fade over the following days and weeks. A follow-up visit lets your doctor check healing and look at any remaining veins.

Raise your leg when you rest during the first few days to ease swelling and soreness. Walking every day helps the leg heal, and most people return to desk work within a day or two and to exercise when their team says so.

Risks and Complications

Phlebectomy is a common procedure, and serious problems are uncommon. Possible effects include:

  • Bruising, swelling and soreness along the treated area
  • Small marks where the openings were made
  • Numbness or tingling in a patch of skin
  • Infection at an opening
  • Rarely, a blood clot in a deep vein

Call your vein team if you have increasing pain, redness, warmth, drainage or fever. Call 911 for chest pain or trouble breathing. Call your vein team the same day for sudden swelling of one leg with pain, which can be a clot in a deep vein.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will I have scars?

The openings are very small. They leave small marks that fade for most people. Your doctor can describe what to expect for your skin.

Is phlebectomy the same as vein stripping?

No. Vein stripping is a larger operation done in an operating room under general or regional anesthesia, through incisions at the groin and knee. Phlebectomy uses tiny openings and local numbing, and takes place in the office.

Can I walk after the procedure?

Yes. Walking is encouraged, and your team gives you specific limits for your recovery.

Will the varicose veins come back?

The removed veins do not return. New varicose veins can form over time, and your team talks with you about follow-up.

Can phlebectomy be done at the same time as other vein treatments?

Often, yes. Your doctor may close a leaking trunk vein with endovenous ablation and remove the bulging branch veins in the same visit, or plan the steps a few weeks apart, depending on your veins.

Who Provides It and Where

  • Heart South Cardiovascular Group lists phlebectomy among its vein services at its vein center in the Heart South Vascular Institute. It offers a free vascular screening. Schedule at heartsouthpc.com or call.
  • Baptist Health Vein Center, Hoover at 5295 Preserve Pkwy, Suite 270, Hoover, AL 35244, phone (205) 949-9289. The team includes John Eagan, MD and Kathleen Sentell, PA. Use the online request form, and a representative follows up within two business days.
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Comprehensive Care

Related Service Lines
Heart and Vascular Care

Vein specialists remove bulging surface veins, often after a leaking main vein has been closed.

Learn More About Heart and Vascular Care
Conditions
Varicose veins

Varicose veins are enlarged, twisted veins near the skin, usually in the legs, caused by weakened vein valves. They can...

Learn More About Varicose veins
Treatments
Endovenous ablation

Endovenous ablation closes a leaking varicose vein from the inside. Guided by ultrasound, your doctor places a thin catheter...

Learn More About Endovenous ablation
Sclerotherapy for varicose veins

Sclerotherapy treats spider veins and varicose veins with a small injection. A medicine goes into the affected vein, the...

Learn More About Sclerotherapy for varicose veins
Doppler ultrasound

A Doppler ultrasound uses sound waves to show how blood moves through the veins and arteries in your arms, legs and neck. It...

Learn More About Doppler ultrasound
Peripheral artery angioplasty and stenting

Angioplasty and stenting open a narrowed artery in the leg or elsewhere outside the heart, using a thin tube and a tiny...

Learn More About Peripheral artery angioplasty and stenting

References

  1. MedlinePlus. Varicose Veins and Spider Veins.
    https://medlineplus.gov/varicoseveins.html
  2. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Varicose Veins.
    https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/varicose-veins
  3. MedlinePlus. Ultrasound.
    https://medlineplus.gov/ultrasound.html

Talk With a Specialist

A first consultation or a second opinion starts with the practice that performs the procedure.

Find a Cardiologist