Protect Your Heart

Heart disease is the leading cause of death and disability in the U.S., killing more women and men than all types of cancer combined. We're highlighting the importance of understanding and managing heart disease risk factors and living a heart-healthy lifestyle as essential parts of practicing self-care for our hearts.

Prevent & Control Risk Factors

The chance of developing heart disease can be reduced by taking steps to prevent and control your risk factors. HeartAware, our free cardiovascular risk assessment, will help you to learn about risk factors as well as strategies to manage your heart health, providing you with a personalized and confidential report that will help you:

• Learn your current heart health status
• Identify medical and lifestyle factors to reduce your risk of heart disease
• Take action to reduce your level of risk, including making you aware of the many services available through Cape Cod Healthcare
• Understand your "Heart Age." According to the Centers for Disease Control, this is the calculated age of a person’s cardiovascular system based on the risk factor profile

More than one in three women in the U.S. is living with cardiovascular disease, according to the American Heart Association. And heart disease death rates have declined more slowly for women in the last 25 years than they have for men. Some of the risk of heart failure is due to family history and genetics. But, there are things that you can do to lower your chances of heart disease, heart attack, heart failure or stroke.

Heart-Healthy Living

Heart disease is largely preventable. Learn about living a heart-healthy lifestyle from the NIH, including the importance of:

• Understanding your risks
• Getting your blood pressure and cholesterol checked
• Choosing heart-healthy foods
• Aiming for a healthy weight

• Managing stress
• Getting regular physical activity
• Quitting smoking
• Getting enough good-quality sleep

The Heart Team: Patient-Centric, Expert Cardiovascular Care

The skilled Heart Team at the Cape Cod Healthcare Heart and Vascular Institute provides the specialized expertise and high-quality care, you’d expect from an academic medical center, close to home. The Heart Team approach places the patient and their family at the center, with various specialists and the patient’s general cardiologist meeting on complex cases to collaborate on the best treatment options. This coordination has been shown to provide improved patient experience and superior outcomes.

The team includes specialists across general cardiology, interventional cardiology, cardiac surgery, electrophysiology & arrhythmia services, cardiac imaging, structural heart services, peripheral vascular disease treatment and cardiac rehabilitation.

The CCHC Heart & Vascular Institute features:

• An exceptional level of care with quality outcomes that compare to the best in the country.
• The training and expertise of board-certified cardiac and vascular physicians combined with the full resources of Cape Cod Healthcare, including Cape Cod Hospital and Falmouth Hospital, and the Visiting Nurse Association of Cape Cod.
• A multidisciplinary team approach, with physicians, advanced practice clinicians, nurses, technicians and support staff working together to coordinate a continuum of care dedicated to delivering an outstanding outcome and experience for every patient.
• The latest research, screening and educational resources.
• A leading-edge cardiac surgery program affiliated with Beth Israel Lahey Health.

Cardiovascular Quality You Can Measure

Our commitment to comprehensive, high-quality care is evident throughout Cape Cod Healthcare:

• We are recognized by the American College of Cardiology, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health and other agencies for excellence in lifesaving cardiac care.
• Cape Cod Hospital has been Nationally Recognized in the 2023 U.S. News & World Report “Best Hospitals” Issue for Cardiovascular Care.
• Cape Cod Hospital has earned a Blue Distinction® Center for Cardiac Care designation by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, as part of the Blue Distinction Specialty Care program.
• We provide high-quality heart attack care with some of the fastest “door-to-balloon times” in the state and the nation. This means if you arrive in one of our emergency rooms, you could be receiving treatment in our catheterization lab in as soon as 12 minutes. This translates to higher survival rates and less damage following a heart attack.
• We are dedicated to heart disease prevention and education, including participation in clinical trials.
• Our cardiac surgery program is affiliated with Beth Israel Lahey Health, where many of our cardiac specialists trained.
• Our dedicated cardiac surgical suites are equipped with the latest technology and our adjoining cardiovascular intensive care unit has one-on-one patient care following surgery.

Our quality measures equal or exceed those of larger academic institutions in Boston and across the nation. You can view our quality scores as reported by Hospital Compare from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).