CardioVascular Health Clinic expanding services locally

Woodward’s CardioVascular Health Clinic has a new addition to the team. General and Interventional Cardiologist Dr. Lance Garner, MD, originally from Weatherford, sees patients every second Thursday of the month.

“I'm from western Oklahoma. It was kind of a natural fit,” Garner said. “One of the big problems in small town America is inadequacy of health care and… cardiovascular disease is the number one killer of human beings. Just having that access goes a long way, where you can just drive into town and see your cardiologist.”

The CardioVascular Health Clinic doctors see hundreds of patients from the surrounding area and all the way out in the panhandle, according to Garner.

“We're kind of bringing everything out here where you can get 95% of stuff done here,” Garner said. “I think that's what makes us different. We’re able to offer a lot more testing that you don't have to travel to the city for.”

The clinic offers heart and vascular studies, doppler ultrasounds of the heart, echocardiograms, EKG pacemaker tests, electrophysiology and more, according to Garner.

“We are providing cardiovascular technology here, that really you can only get in Oklahoma City right now,” Garner explained. “A more accurate type of stress test called a PET (positron emission tomography) profusion stress test. It's built to be even more accurate than the standard nuclear fusion stress test.”

The mobile testing facility is built in a semi-truck parked behind the clinic when the doctors are at the clinic, making testing available in Woodward.

“We do the entire study out there,” Garner said. “Start to finish, probably, 45 minutes, I'd say. We get resting images, and then we give them a chemical to replicate stress or physiologic stress on the heart. And then after that for a certain amount of time we take a picture of the heart. So it's not the traditional EKG stress test.”

CardioVascular Health Clinic now has five physicians traveling to rural Oklahoma. Joining founders Dr. Dwayne Schmidt, M.D. and Dr. Jim Melton, D.O. are Dr. Marcus Smith, M.D. in 2016. Dr. Blake Parsons, D.O. in 2017, and Garner this year.

“Between the five of us, we've got an awful lot of experience to come out to the small communities,” Garner said.

Garner said the five common risk factors for coronary artery disease (blockages or plaque buildup) are family history, smoking, diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

“Rhythm problems, they're just a manifestation often of the things that we acquired as we age,” Garner said. “Lots of different things can trigger rhythm problems.”

According to Garner, because the clinic is not part of a big umbrella or major hospital network, their prices are more affordable.

“When you get testing done through us, insurances absolutely, including Medicare, absolutely love us because we do at a fraction of the cost,” Garner said. “I’m excited about helping patients in northwestern Oklahoma. Many of these patients would otherwise be unable to gain easy access to this level of care.”

For more information call 405-701-9880 or contact us here.