Cardiac Care and Surgery

While chest pain is one of the most commonly recognized symptoms of a heart attack, it can be difficult to tell if your chest pain is caused by your heart or another problem – particularly if you have no previous heart conditions. St. Francis’ Chest Pain Center is staffed by hospitalists and cardiologists 24 hours a day who help determine if chest pain is caused by a heart condition.

Located just steps away from the Emergency Room, the eight-bed Chest Pain Center allows patients who arrive with chest pain to bypass the ER and be monitored and tested quickly. The Chest Pain Center is fully equipped with diagnostic equipment, and physicians and specially-trained staff perform non-invasive tests such as nuclear and echo stress tests, EKGs and blood chemistry tests to arrive at a rapid diagnosis.

Patients who are found to have heart problems are admitted to the hospital and have access to St. Francis Heart Care. For patients who find their chest pain is not caused by heart conditions, convenient touches abound – there is even a shower area so patients can clean up and return to work immediately if they prefer.

Cardiac Care Unit

St. Francis’ new eight-bed Cardiac Care Unit (CCU) is the latest milestone in St. Francis Heart Care. The new CCU was created to optimize clinical excellence and attention to the needs of the whole person. The result is a state-of-the-art, beautiful and convenient unit that improves our patients’ experiences.

The CCU is located near the Chest Pain Center, catheterization labs, operating rooms and telemetry unit to ensure smooth transport to and from procedures. Staffed by our efficient and highly-trained nursing staff, the unit is the first in the Upstate to use state-of-the-art, flexible medical arms over each patient’s bed instead of the traditional fixed “head wall” system. This overhead system allows caregivers to position the medical equipment in the best way to meet patient needs while offering convenient access to all members of the healthcare team.

Because St. Francis believes in healing the whole person, the CCU was created using design and materials that are shown to best promote healing. Touches like the abundant use of natural lighting, high ceilings and calming colors result is an environment that contributes in every aspect to the best patient-care delivery.