Personalized Care for Patients with Heart-Monitoring Devices
In the Arrhythmia Device Clinic, our team cares for patients who have heart-monitoring devices implanted in their hearts. This includes children and adults with additional congenital heart disease who have pacemakers, defibrillators or loop recorders. Our focus is performing long-term management of these devices and addressing any problems that patients may have with them.
What Sets Us Apart
- We support the newest technology for managing heart-monitoring devices. Many of these devices can now be synced with smart phones. We help our patients get set up with and understand this technology so you know how to use it before you leave your appointment with us.
- We have processes in place to make equipment monitoring easy for patients and families. This includes:
- Routine transmissions from your home-monitoring equipment
- Four nurses and five physicians with special training in electrophysiology to help care for you and manage your device
- 24-hour call service for any questions or problems you may have about the device
- Coordination of device care with other programs and departments in the hospital to reduce the number and length of your visits
Our Treatment Approach
Our team of specialists offers the following care in the Arrhythmia Device Clinic:
- In-person evaluations. These take place during your child’s regular Arrhythmia Device Clinic visits, or we coordinate them with your routine cardiology appointments so you can see your heart doctor and have the device evaluated all in the same visit.
- Remote monitoring. Most device companies offer home monitoring equipment. We will work with you to get this set up in your home and have your child’s device data automatically sent to us so we can routinely monitor the device from afar.
- Answering your questions. We are here for all of your and your child’s heart-monitoring device questions such as, “Can I ride on roller coasters with this device in me?"
- Inpatient care. If your child has an inpatient stay, our care team will come to you for device evaluation during your stay.
- Troubleshooting. If you’re having problems with the device, call us any time of day or night and we’ll work with you to find out what’s going on and how to fix it.
What to Expect When You Visit Us
If you’re coming to us from another care center and your child already has a device, get in touch with us ahead of time. We’ll work with your other care providers to get medical records and device data in advance. This can help make the first visit with us go more quickly.
We regularly work with referring physicians to help them understand your child’s device if needed. We are happy to answer any questions they may have regarding ongoing care of the device.
