While HOTV has several specialized programs, above all, we are health care specialists who care for children and young adults with any kind of heart or vascular condition. And we care for their families as well.
For many types of heart issues, this becomes a life-long relationship and commitment between patient and family with us. Therefore, HOTV becomes a family’s “Cardiology Care Home” to turn to again and again for close care in times of crisis and for annual check-ups when all is well. And we are there 24/7/365 when problems arise for our family, being easily accessible during and after hours by all modern means.
For other issues, visiting HOTV is a once or twice event just for assessment and assurance that everything is A-OK, that an athlete is safe to play sports or that a patient is safe to undergo an upcoming procedure or start a medication.
Common reasons for visiting our practice or for our doctors visiting your patient include assessment and management of any of the list of signs, symptoms, or congenital, acquired heart diseases or arrhythmias included in our list on our Education pages. More common reasons include assessment of murmurs, chest pain, palpitations, fainting,dizziness, fatigue, shortness of breath, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and, of course, ongoing care for congenital heart disease.
A patient and family’s relationship with us often begins before birth, by way of discovery of a concern for a fetal heart problem during an OB visit, or during a fetal ultrasound when we are asked to perform a fetal echocardiogram. Often the relationship begins when we are called urgently to the attend to a newborn in the nursery. Our practice covers 7 newborn nurseries in the East Bay and we are on-call 24/7/365 to respond to any emergency suspected of being a cardiac issue. Still other relationships begin when a healthy child or young person feels the onset of symptoms or when their doctor detects something not quite right.
See What to Expect at Your First Visit if this might be the beginning of your relationship with us.
In addition to the evaluation of a patient’s history, their family’s history and a physical exam, assessments include evaluations in our Pleasanton and Mobile Cardiac Lab that travels to our 4 satellite clinics and 8 community hospitals where a wide battery of non-invasive testing can be performed. For the most part, a full assessment can be achieved and management can begin within this setting.
Sometimes patients need further testing include genetic testing, radiology, invasive procedures, and cardiac surgery. The doctors of HOTV have clinical and academic appointments and a very close relationship with our colleagues in radiology, interventional cardiology, electrophysiology and cardiac surgery at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital, Stanford, and Children’s Hospital Oakland as well as genetic testing centers such as GeneDx and Mayo Clinic. This makes a patient and family’s interaction between HOTV and these institution a seamless experience. These interactions are usually of short duration and during a particularly critical time in the big picture of the cardiac care of a patient. Once these events are over, patients and their family return to their HOTV Cardiology Home.
As patients with life-long heart conditions grow to school age, they can begin attending special camps to meet others with similar conditions. We encourage them and assist them in attending Camp Taylor in our area and other cardiac camps around the country. As they go off to college, our doctors continue to take care of them through these years as well. Once they graduate college and settle into their new adult life, we help them transition to Adult Congenital Cardiology Specialists and other Cardiologists in their new hometown. This is our philosophy of the Cardiology Care Home.