Heart Care
Bringing cardiology consultation and cardiac diagnostic services and treatment close to home.
Your heart deserves exceptional care – where top-quality treatment, uncompromising safety and outstanding customer service come together for you. Our cardiology department at UnityPoint Health - Iowa Methodist Medical Center provides state-of-the-art technology in a comfortable setting with knowledgeable and compassionate team members. We are dedicated to providing patient-centered care with a full spectrum of services to diagnose and treat your heart condition.
Award-Winning Care
UnityPoint Health – Iowa Methodist Medical Center has a Blue Distinction® Center+ designation for Cardiac Care from Wellmark® Blue Cross® and Blue Shield®, recognizing its commitment to high-quality, safe and cost-efficient heart care. This designation highlights the hospital’s dedication to achieving excellent patient outcomes while maintaining affordability.
Our Services
Our physicians are board-certified in cardiology and many are board-certified in a cardiac sub-specialty area. They're able to coordinate virtually everything you need; diagnostic tests, surgeries, advanced clinical procedures and cardiac rehabilitation, to keep your heart healthy and strong.
Our interventional cardiac catheterization lab services offer advanced capabilities for hospital inpatients. Cardiac rehabilitation services are designed to help patients return to their optimum level of health. The cardiac rehabilitation team works alongside physicians to help patients with heart disease recover faster and feel better.
Diagnostic and interventional services offered include:
- Comprehensive cardiac catheterization lab services
- 24-hour emergency heart attack treatment
- Advanced electrophysiology lab for heart rhythm care
- Inpatient and outpatient congestive heart failure treatment
- Comprehensive cardiac and vascular surgery
- Widespread cardiac diagnostic testing
Cardiac Testing
Cardiac testing benefits patients who may have, or be at risk for, cardiovascular disease. Proper cardiac testing allows your cardiologist to make an accurate diagnosis, which is the first step towards a great recovery. We use a wide variety of tests and procedures to diagnose heart problems, including:
- Cardiovascular Stress Testing: Cardiovascular stress testing is monitoring the heart during exercise.
- Echocardiography: Echocardiography is an ultrasound of the heart that shows it working, in motion.
- Electrocardiogram (EKG): Electrocardiography is a testing method commonly used to determine if the heart has been damaged. Also called E.C.G. or E.K.G., an electrocardiogram is a print-out of the heart's electrical impulses.
- Event Monitors: Event monitors are monitoring devices worn for a 30-day period to check for heart rhythm irregularities. The patient pushes a button when they feel a symptom, such as an irregular heartbeat.
- Holter Monitor: A holter monitor is a electrocardiogram recorded over longer time. A 1 to 14 day period is captured.
- Nuclear Cardiology Imaging: Nuclear Cardiology Imaging is a stress test that utilizes a radioactive tracer (delivered via an injection) to identify blockages in the major blood vessels that lead to the heart. (Unlike cardiac catheterization, this does not require insertion of a catheter into the blood vessels.)
- Pacemaker Clinic: A pacemaker is an implanted device that helps regulate your heartbeat. The Pacemaker Clinic allows a patient to have the pacemaker's proper functioning checked over a telephone line, using special equipment.
- Peripheral Vascular Ultrasound: A peripheral vascular ultrasound is an ultrasound of the blood vessels to show any blockages.
Outpatient Diagnostic Testing
UnityPoint Health - Iowa Methodist Medical Center cardiology can perform the below state-of-the-art ultrasound exams, nuclear medicine exams, treadmill stress tests and more cardiac tests at any of our nearby outpatient locations to serve patients conveniently and efficiently. Our staff works to get patients in quickly, often on the same day their primary care provider refers them.
For direct scheduling at one of our outpatient locations, please call (515) 241- 5633.
Cardiac Catheterization Lab Testing
We offer complete diagnostic and interventional cardiac catheterization laboratory services at Iowa Methodist Medical Center. We hold the Central Iowa record "door-to-balloon times" for the emergency treatment of heart attacks.
- Balloon Angioplasty or PTCA: Angioplasty is one method of widening narrowed arteries. A catheter with a deflated balloon on its tip is passed into the narrowed part of the artery. Then the balloon is inflated, and the narrowed area is widened.
- Cardiac Biopsy: A cardiac biopsy is performed on patients that have had a heart transplant. Using a catheter, a very small tissue sample is obtained from the heart and examined for signs of rejection.
- Cardiac Defibrillator Implantation: In some people, the heart beats ineffectively, which can cause sudden death if not treated immediately. In these patients, a small device called an implantable cardioverter defibrillator or ICD is inserted below the collarbone and connected to the heart by wires. The ICD delivers a small shock, which "resets" the electrical signals in the heart, causing it to beat normally again.
- Coronary Atherectomy: Coronary atherectomy is a procedure performed to remove plaque, calcium buildup or blood clots from the coronary arteries. Specialized catheters, inserted into the groin artery, work in different ways to remove foreign matter from the heart arteries.
- Coronary Stents: Coronary stents (which look like a tiny wire mesh tube) are used to prop open an artery. The stent is collapsed to a small diameter, placed over an angioplasty balloon catheter and moved into the area of the blockage. When the balloon is inflated, the stent expands, locks in place and forms a rigid support to hold the artery open. The stent remains in the artery permanently and holds it open to improve blood flow to the heart muscle.
- Diagnostic Coronary Angiogram/Catheterization: A diagnostic coronary angiogram is a procedure where a catheter inserted in the wrist or groin is used to inject dye into the coronary arteries, to allow the physician to find blockages or narrowed spots that may prevent oxygenated blood from reaching the heart muscle. During this procedure, measurements can also be taken to assess the heart’s ability to pump blood to the rest of the body.
- Electrophysiology Studies: Electrophysiology studies are specialized tests performed to assess how well the heart's electrical signals are working. Multiple catheters are inserted through the groin into the heart chambers. Highly specialized equipment is then used to record the heart's electrical signals. These signals must work perfectly in order for the heart to beat effectively.
- Left Atrial Appendage Occlusion (Watchman Device): Left atrial appendage occlusion procedure closes off the left atrial appendage via catheter to prevent bloods clots from forming and traveling to the brain.
- MitraClip Procedure: To treat a leaking mitral valve, a clip is placed via catheter on the mitral valve to help it close more effectively.
- Pacemaker Implantation: The implantation of a small, battery-operated device that helps the heart beat in a regular rhythm.
- Patent Foramen Ovale (PFO): The placement of a closure device via catheter on an abnormal opening between the heart’s chambers to seal the defect.
- Pulmonary Embolism (PE) Thrombectomy: A procedure to remove a pulmonary embolism usually performed in emergency or urgent settings when a pulmonary embolism is life-threatening, causing severe symptoms or is not responding to medical treatment.
- Pulsed Field Ablation (PFA): Pulsed field ablation uses electrical energy delivered in high-voltage, ultra-short pulses to create precise and controlled lesions in the heart tissue, disrupting the electrical signals causing the arrhythmia.
- Radio Frequency Ablation: If an abnormal electrical pathway is discovered during an electrophysiology study, this pathway can be eliminated using radiofrequency ablation. A catheter is inserted through a vein in the groin. When the catheter is properly positioned across the abnormal pathway, a radio frequency is generated in the catheter tip, causing a scar to form, eliminating the pathway.
- Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR): TAVR is the replacement of the aortic valve through a catheter, usually inserted via the femoral artery.
Advanced Hospital Inpatient Heart Care
Dedicated inpatient cardiac care departments are available at Iowa Methodist Medical Center and Iowa Lutheran Hospital, offering comprehensive services including heart attack treatment, heart rhythm care, open heart surgery and heart failure care.
Cardiac Rehabilitation
Cardiac rehabilitation services are offered for patients receiving inpatient and outpatient care and are designed to help patients return to their optimum level of health. The cardiac rehabilitation staff works alongside physicians to help patients with heart disease recover faster and feel better. Patients released from the hospital can continue their cardiac rehabilitation care at one of our two clinics:
- UnityPoint Health – Des Moines Cardiac and Pulmonary Rehabilitation – Iowa Lutheran Hospital
- UnityPoint Health – Des Moines Cardiac and Pulmonary Rehabilitation – West Des Moines
Learn More About Cardiac Rehabilitation
Heart Attack Education
UnityPoint Health - Iowa Methodist Medical Center - along with Emergency Medical Services (EMS) squads in Des Moines, West Des Moines, Altoona, and Ankeny - uses life-saving steps we call "Cardiac Alert."
In a cardiac emergency, receiving fast treatment means saving more precious heart muscle, increasing your chances for survival. If an EMS paramedic determines that a severe heart attack is occurring, Cardiac Alert helps coordinate all of the healthcare experts needed from the ambulance to the Emergency Department to the cardiac catheterization lab for the patient's complete care, saving precious seconds to diagnose and treat these life-threatening heart conditions.
Our experienced, board-certified emergency physicians trained in heart disease and diseases of the circulatory system are available 24 hours a day with the most up-to-date technology supporting them. With immediate access to surgical services, cardiac catheterization laboratories and many diagnostic services, UnityPoint Health - Des Moines' three hospitals provide patients with the very best in emergency cardiac care.
Take time to learn the warning signs and symptoms of heart attack and how to perform CPR in an emergency.
Cardiology Clinics
A primary goal of our cardiology team is to remain a valued community resource for patients and referring physicians focused on exceptional care and patient accessibility. For these reasons, the cardiologists and trained staff travel to communities in Central Iowa to bring cardiology consultation and cardiac diagnostic services close to home.
