UM BWMC Offers State-Of-The-Art Care And Patient Convenience With New Cardiology And Pulmonary Care Locations

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To serve huge health care needs in the Anne Arundel County community, the University of Maryland Baltimore Washington Medical Center (UM BWMC) made a big move in December.

A member organization of the University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS), UM BWMC moved its cardiology team, University of Maryland Baltimore Washington Heart Associates, into the third floor of its outpatient care center. The new space aligns practices that specialize in the heart and lungs, providing patients with a convenient single location for comprehensive cardiopulmonary care.

According to the Anne Arundel County Department of Health’s May 2024 Report of Community Health Indicators, heart disease was the second leading cause of death in county residents. Additionally, the number of pneumonia cases rose significantly. Patients with heart disease and lung conditions often have similar risk factors, such as smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and age.

“Just like the heart and lungs work together, there needs to be a synergy between our medical practices to ensure that we’re helping patients optimize their care,” said Jason Heavner, senior vice president and chief medical officer at UM BWMC. “By bringing our experts together under one roof with the latest screening technology, an on-site pharmacist, and innovative treatments, we’re able to offer more wraparound services that address the social drivers of health – like access to medications and appointments – and keep heart and lung disease patients healthy and out of the hospital.”

As University of Maryland Baltimore Washington Heart Associates President Jorge Ramirez explained, “Most times, it’s either the heart or the lungs making patients short of breath, so having the resources next to each other really makes a difference. When patients come into the office short of breath, or with fluid overload, we can now send them right down the hall to give them some Lasix and get them breathing better.”

With 22,000 square feet, the state-of-the-art facility in Glen Burnie includes 34 exam rooms, of which 17 are dedicated to cardiology services. The suite also provides space for infusion services, new stress and exercise testing laboratories and an onsite pharmacist who can assist patients with medication plans. University of Maryland Baltimore Washington Heart Associates provides preventive care as well as treatment for arrhythmia management, cardiomyopathy, congestive heart failure, coronary artery disease, pulmonary embolism, and valvular heart disease.

A key feature of the practice is the level of innovative technology available onsite to assist with diagnosis and treatments, including a new computed tomography (CT) scanner. A high-resolution heart scan is one of the tests the CT scanner will perform. As people age, plaque buildup can clog their arteries, reducing oxygen flow and leading to heart attacks or heart muscle weakness. A noninvasive CT scan can measure the amount of plaque present and provide data that will get people on preventive plans before the heart disease gets worse.

The improved CT technology also creates higher-resolution images, allowing UM BWMC providers to clearly see the heart’s structure and already placed stents.

“The newer generation (scanner) is able to take a picture of your heart vessels in literally one heartbeat,” said Ratnakar Mukherjee, chair of cardiology and director of the catheterization laboratory at UM BWMC. “Before, we had to capture images of multiple heartbeats and then splice these images together. Now we can see one full heartbeat and have a complete picture; it’s amazing technology.”

The CT scanner is not the only new technology at UM BWMC. On-site stress and pulmonary function testing laboratories allow specialists to conduct exercise tests to determine the cause of a patient’s shortness of breath.

Jeffrey Marshall, chair of critical care and pulmonary medicine at UM BWMC, gave one example of the tests’ effectiveness in treating a long-distance runner who experienced shortness of breath while running a marathon.

“While running five miles before getting winded may seem reasonable to most people, for a marathon runner, that may be a sign of something else going on. Using cardiopulmonary exercise testing, we’re able to understand if this person is experiencing a cardiac or a pulmonary issue that we need to address,” Marshall said. “We are able to diagnose pulmonary disease and other conditions earlier.”

The new facility is connected to the hospital, which has an award-winning critical care unit specializing in pulmonary care needs and newly renovated cardiac catheterization laboratories with best-in-class imaging and technology. Later this spring, UM BWMC will open a newly built cardiac catheterization laboratory featuring a 3D mapping system that will allow providers to have a clearer view of the patient’s heart from all angles during procedures. With this new 3D technology, cardiologists can offer primary coronary intervention to patients experiencing a heart attack.

“There was a time when we just tried to use just medications,” Ramirez said. “The medications were helpful, but they didn’t come close to the ability to save somebody’s life when you can open up the artery with a stent or a balloon. So that really has made a tremendous difference.”

A High Standard of Care

As a member organization of UMMS, patients also have access to leading cardiac surgeons who provide consultations in the same building as the new cardiology practice. Specialists also review patient charts to determine individuals who may be appropriate for enrollment in clinical trials.

UM BWMC has been recognized by several organizations for its expert cardiology and pulmonary care services. U.S. News and World Report rated UM BWMC as high performing in the care it provides for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, heart attack, heart failure, lung cancer surgery and pneumonia in 2024.

With the new expansion, UM BWMC is growing to ensure it continues to meet the evolving needs of the community.

“Even though we have grown and gotten really big, we still have the feeling of a community hospital,” Ramirez said. “We have people who have worked here for decades. We have patients who have been coming here for decades. I have patients who I’ve been taking care of for over 30 years and they like coming here over other institutions.”

To learn more about UM BWMC’s new cardiology and pulmonary care practices and the medical center’s services, visit umbwmc.org/heart and umbwmc.org/lung.

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