Your Visit & What To Expect

Your Visit & What To Expect

One team, one hospital, one purpose… to provide our patients the very best quality and service today and tomorrow.

What To Expect Video

Kansas Heart Hospital understands your unique needs and the fact that you may be traveling to our hospital from a rural area. Your care is of the utmost importance to us and the comfort of your family and friends is also very important to us.

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Patient-Focused Care

During your stay you will be cared for by a number of healthcare professionals, for example, your attending physician, perhaps a consulting physician, your nurse, an x-ray technician, etc., to name just a few. Your care will be team coordinated recognizing both the nature of your cardiovascular problem to be treated and the support required to achieve physical and emotional comfort and assurance during your stay.

Your room is private and there is a roll-out chair available for a family member to sit-on or sleep-in on the telemetry, general medical floor unit area. As an elective, non-emergent admission for a procedure, you will generally be admitted to the intermediate, one-day care area. Your valuables may be checked-in at the time of your arrival; however, it is advisable for a family member or friend to take home items of value. Please inform your nurse upon arrival if you have special personal items such as dentures, hearing aids and eyeglasses so that they may be properly accounted for throughout your hospital stay.

Ready To Check In?

We have compiled a check-in check-list to make your visit at Kansas Heart Hospital that much easier. We are always here to help, please download the list below to make sure your stay is as comfortable as possible.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Find questions & answers about our different services.

Carotid Endarterectomy

Heart Catheterization

  • If I need open heart surgery will that be done the same day? During the same admission?

    After your heart catheterization is performed by your cardiologist, you will be sent back to your room and the cardiologist will consult a heart surgeon to review your films and together they will decide if open heart surgery is appropriate for you. Unless you are considered an emergency patient who needs open heart surgery immediately, your open heart surgery is usually not performed on the same day. Scheduling of your heart surgery depends on many factors but is generally performed during the same admission, but not necessarily the day immediately following your heart catheterization procedure.

  • If I need stents will that be done the same day?

    In many instances, your cardiologist may place a stent or multiple stents during the time you have your heart catheterization procedure. However, the decision to place a stent or multiple stents at the time of your heart catheterization procedure depends on many factors and you should attempt to discuss this issue with your cardiologist before you have your procedure.

  • How long does the heart catheterization take?

    Usually the actual procedure takes around between forty-five minutes to one hour. If a coronary stent is placed the procedure will take longer depending on the additional time to place the stent or stents in your coronary artery.

  • Will I know the results of the test the same day?

    Yes, your cardiologist will be able to discuss the results of your heart catheterization with you during your hospital stay. The cardiologist will review the digital images obtained during your procedure at a computer work station following the procedure, dictate a procedure report, and then visit with you and your family.

  • How long will I have to stay in bed after the procedure is over?

    On average you will be asked to remain on bed rest between 4-6 hours, depending on your physician’s request. During that time it is important for you to lie still, and avoid bending the knee of your affected leg. The nursing staff will assist you with repositioning to ensure that you are kept as comfortable as possible. However, with a closure device plugging the artery you will be able to ambulate much sooner, for example, possibly within 3 hours.  However, if your procedure is performed from your wrist, you will be able to ambulate within one hour of your procedure.

  • Will I go home the same day?

    Depending on the results of your heart catheterization procedure you may be discharged later the same day if no blockages are found. If your heart catheterization results in a coronary stent being placed, you can expect to spend at least one night in the hospital. Complications during your recovery period may also result in the need to stay in the hospital overnight.

  • Will I be put completely to sleep during the procedure?

    Medication for relaxation or light sedation will be given. A local anesthetic will be used at the puncture site. General anesthesia is rarely used in usual circumstances. There is a possibility that you will be awake throughout the procedure but semi-sedated and restful. If at any point during the procedure you are feeling pain please alert the physician or your cath lab nurse.

  • What happens during a heart catheterization?

    After local anesthetic has numbed your groin or your wrist area, the doctor will make a small puncture and insert a catheter into your blood vessel. You shouldn’t feel any pain at all, but there will be a sense of pressure. He will be watching the catheter’s movement on an x-ray monitor. You won’t feel the catheter inside you as it moves through your artery to your heart. The tube is guided to your heart, where the coronary arteries originate. Special dye called contrast media is injected into your coronary artery and is seen on the x-ray monitor in the form of a picture and can identify blockages in your coronary blood artery. Dye will also be injected into your heart’s pumping chambers to see how well your heart pumps and also if a heart valves has leakage. After the procedure is finished the catheter will be removed, and firm pressure will be applied to where the catheter was removed to stop any bleeding.

Peripheral Vascular Patients

  • What time can I expect to be discharged?

    There is not an official check-out time at Kansas Heart Hospital. You will be discharged once you are seen by your physician and/or physician assistant/nurse practitioner and are provided with all of your necessary discharge follow-up instructions and medication list and / or prescriptions.

  • Why do I have to bring my medications from home?

    You are asked to bring your medications to the hospital in order for your admitting nurse to make one final cross check to assure that you are actually going to receive the medications which you have been prescribed and have been taking at home. Medicare and other healthcare agencies demand that medications be checked and double checked in order to avoid medication errors or omissions. During your hospital stay, you will be asked to take your own medications, unless the physician has prescribed a new medication or a substitute medication for your.

  • Will my pain be managed during the hospital stay, and when discharged home?

    The physician and nursing staff will work closely with you to ensure that your pain is properly controlled during your hospital stay. When you are ready for discharge the physician may prescribe a pain reliever medication if necessary.

  • Will this affect my ability to walk after the surgery is done?

    Your ability to walk should not be affected by this surgery but there may be slight swelling in the extremity which underwent surgery.

  • How long will I stay in the hospital?

    If you undergo an intraoperative angiogram with angioplasty you will usually go home after the recommended period of bed rest or early the next day. If you are scheduled for a surgical bypass procedure for leg blockages, then you should expect a 1-2 night hospital stay.

  • Will I have incisions?

    If you are scheduled for an intraoperative angiogram, you will have a puncture site in the groin region in order to place a catheter to inject dye and obtain images of blockages in your leg or arm arteries. If the blockages are suitable for ballooning (the procedure is called angioplasty), it will generally be performed at the same time. Also, a peripheral stent to open up a blocked artery may be employed during the same procedure as well. Whether your procedure requires angioplasty, a stent or both will be based on the type and location of your arterial blockages.

    If you are scheduled for actual surgery involving the placement of by-pass graft to treat a blockage(s) in your leg arteries you will have a surgical incision based on what needs to be done in the affected leg artery. Sometimes more than one incision may be necessary.

Have a question about your visit?

Contact us about your visit questions

If you or your family have questions about your upcoming visit, please contact us at 1-316-630-5000 or 1-800-574-3278. You can also send a message by filling out the form below, be aware, the quickest way to get your question answered is to give us a call! Your team is ready to answer any questions you may have.