Cardiology

Belton Regional Medical Center's skilled clinicians offer a wide range of heart care services, including:

• 24-hour emergency care
• Chemical stress tests
• Echocardiogram
• Electrocardiogram
• Exercise stress tests
• Heart imaging
• Holter monitoring

We offer the latest in coronary calcium scoring, with a 128-slice computerized tomography (CT) scanner equipped with low-dose technology to limit radiation exposure.

Coronary calcium scoring is a convenient and noninvasive way of evaluating a person's risk for a heart attack. This scan shows the location and extent of calcified plaque in the walls of coronary arteries.

The scan takes five to 10 minutes. There’s no pain or injections. It's not covered by most health insurance or health plans, but the test fee is only $50.

Who may need coronary calcium scoring?

Men between 35 and 70 years old and women between 40 and 70 years old may need it if they have any of these risk factors:

• A family history of heart disease, including heart attack
• A history of smoking or currently smoking
• A diabetes diagnosis
• High cholesterol
• High blood pressure
• Overweight

Who should not have the coronary calcium scoring scan?

• Pregnant women
• Those who have heart disease (have had a heart attack, have had an angioplasty or stent placed or have had bypass surgery)
• People with a resting heart rate above 90 to 95 beats per minute (resting tachycardia)
• Those who have mechanical heart valves or stents

Want to know if you or a loved one are at risk for heart disease? Take our heart disease risk assessment.

The Emergency Nurses Association gives the Lantern Award to emergency departments that show exceptional practice and innovative performance in the core areas of nursing leadership, practice, education, advocacy and research.

Belton Regional Medical Center has been given this award for superior performance in preventing serious complications for patients during hospital stays.

We're always looking for ways to improve healthcare. That’s why we created Care Connect, which makes healthcare easier to navigate. It connects you to the right care at the right time and keeps you and your loved ones healthy.

With Care Assure, one of Care Connect's programs, we can automatically screen the results of tests performed during an emergency or doctor's visit to identify warning signs and prevent emergencies such as a heart attack or a stroke. If test results show that you’re at risk for a potential emergency, a specially trained nurse will contact you to help connect you to the follow-up care you'll need to help prevent a future emergency.