NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst in New York City has launched specialty women’s cardiovascular services built for the safety net community hospital setting. Its main service: listening to women’s concerns.
“We all realized we wanted to have a clear pathway to talk about prevention for women, as well as really offer a safe place where women could come in and have their symptoms taken seriously,” Gayatri Setia, MD, director of preventive cardiology at NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst and co-director of the women’s cardiovascular institute, told Becker’s. “That was our founding ethos.”
When creating the institute, Dr. Setia and her co-director, Rosy Thachil, MD, focused on providing the specialty care women didn’t have access to in their community. This included services such as postpartum hypertension, a post-cardiovascular ICU clinic and a breast cancer cardiotoxicity program.
But the most important service they provide is taking women’s symptoms seriously.
“Women come in afraid that they’re going to be told their symptoms aren’t real, or that it’s something they’re doing to themselves,” Dr. Setia said. “A lot of the time, women aren’t just coming in for a diagnosis — they’re coming in to know: Can I keep going? Can I take care of my family? So what we’re saying to them is: We’re going to take your symptoms seriously and we’re going to do everything we can to help you maintain a normal quality of life for as long as possible.”
Improving the patient experience and access to care is as simple as providing women time to talk about their symptoms. Women may have more difficulties getting diagnoses due to their symptoms not fitting neatly within diagnosis parameters, and feeling symptoms before true functional compromise.
Many times, women already have adjusted their life to accommodate the symptoms without realizing it. Dr. Setia pointedly asks her patients questions about what they could do a year ago that they can’t do now as a way of uncovering the symptoms that her patients might have “rationalized away.”
“Women may feel symptoms before there’s true functional compromise, and it takes more time to sort out the significance of those symptoms,” Dr. Setia said. “I can at least start to define what’s going on. Even if I can’t find the answer to what’s causing their symptoms, I can reassure them about what is safe, do testing to make sure certain activities are safe, and alleviate their concern about their heart.”
So far, the institute has helped approximately 400 patients in its first year, and is looking to expand availability and add more providers.
At the Becker's 23rd Annual Spine, Orthopedic and Pain Management-Driven ASC + The Future of Spine Conference, taking place June 11-13 in Chicago, spine surgeons, orthopedic leaders and ASC executives will come together to explore minimally invasive techniques, ASC growth strategies and innovations shaping the future of outpatient spine care. Apply for complimentary registration now.
