Heart Care

Early and accurate detection of heart disease is key to helping you avoid a life-threatening situation. We have a variety of diagnostics tests and technologies at our disposal to get a clear picture of your heart health. These include: 

• Nuclear imaging to see how blood flow differs at rest and during exercise in a process called a stress test. This test is used to determine whether specific areas of the heart are receiving enough blood. 
• Cardiac computed tomography (CT) to visualize the heart and associated blood vessels. This scan creates a 3D image of your heart so that your doctor can look for any abnormalities. 
• An echocardiogram, which uses ultrasound to create detailed images of your heart in order to detect heart disease and other conditions, and monitor treatment.

Our experts in blood thinning medications help monitor patients who take drugs such as Warfarin and Coumadin. The anticoagulation clinic schedules one-on-one consultations for blood testing and patient education, providing peace of mind to patients and their physicians by ensuring medications are taken properly and at the right dose.

Our interventional cardiologists are highly experienced and equipped for diagnosing and treating cardiac blockages and occlusions. Advanced fluoroscopy machines provide high-quality images, assisting them in locating blockages and placing stents, pacemakers, defibrillators, monitors and other implantable devices that can keep hearts beating strong for years to come.

Our cardiac rehabilitation program uses a combination of education and exercise to help patients with cardiovascular disease return to a more active life. Participants gain confidence, strength and stamina safely through guided exercise with continual heart monitoring to detect arrythmia and other EKG changes. The goal is to restore each patient to their optimal activity level.

Left untreated, diabetes can damage the heart and lead to cardiovascular disease. At our Diabetes Resource Center, we assess glucose levels, medications, exercise, eating habits, sleep patterns, stress levels and lifestyles to arrive at a customized plan to help our patients with diabetes avoid heart issues.

Our emergency team stands ready, day and night, to care for any medical crisis. Working closely with our interventional cardiologists and cardiac catheterization team, emergency providers can quickly diagnose a cardiac emergency and move the patient just down the hall for catheterization to open blockages and restore blood flow to the heart. 

Sonora Medical Center has state licensing and certification to offer the first percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) program in the Sierra foothills. This means that most people experiencing a heart attack in the Mother Lode no longer need to be transported an hour or more away for this lifesaving treatment. 

With our central location in the heart of the Sierra Nevada Foothills, we’re improving outcomes by reducing the time for residents to receive PCI. And through our strong partnerships with larger hospitals that offer open-heart surgery, our patients have direct access to more specialized care should the need arise.

If you have heart failure, the right care can help you lead a normal life and continue doing the things you enjoy. At our Heart Failure Resource Center, we work closely with each patient to develop individualized education plans. Patients referred to this program receive follow-up care for as long and as often as needed with help including medication management, dietary recommendations and other lifestyle changes to control symptoms and manage heart failure.

For patients with high cholesterol, diabetes or on cholesterol medication, our Lipid Resource Center offers monitoring of lipid panel results, on-going follow-up, and extensive education to help you achieve better control of your cholesterol.