Heart Transplant Program

About our multidisciplinary heart transplant program

Baylor Scott & White Medical Center – Temple is the only heart transplant program between Dallas and Austin and has wait times significantly lower than the national average.

The heart transplant program brings together the collective expertise of specialists with extensive experience in transplant surgery and medicine. Our multidisciplinary integrated team approach to patient care is ideally suited to the complex problems presented by heart failure and heart transplant patients.

All our team members are located on the Temple campus but have clinic office hours at various non-Temple sites (College Station, Killeen, Round Rock and Waco) to provide convenient specialty visit appointments closer to your homes.

Our program started in 2010 and is one of two heart transplant programs in the Baylor Scott & White system. The programs have integrated most of their patient management protocols including the selection process and care for the pre and post-transplant patient and their families.

The ultimate goal of heart failure treatment is to improve the overall survival rate. Therefore, management strategies focus on best evidence-based treatment options for each individual patient.

The work up and treatment is customized to each patient’s condition and all options will be explained in detail and presented by our expert staff in collaboration with your referring provider.

Medical therapy, risk factor management and preservation of other end organs remains the cornerstone of initial treatment strategies for heart failure in conjunction with a number of diagnostic tests.

Most patients can be managed with advanced medical therapy, some require surgical repair of valves or coronary revascularization, others require implantation of assist devices and few ever require a heart transplantation.

Surgical treatment options for heart failure include:

• Valve repair or replacement and/or Maze procedure
• Trans aortic valve replacement (TAVR)
• Coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) and/or DOR procedure
• High risk cardiac surgery
• Hybrid coronary revascularization
• Minimally invasive cardiac surgery
• Valve and CABG
• CABG and/or LV aneurysm resection (DOR procedure)
• Pericardiectomy
• Repair of congenital heart disease (i.e. ASD)
• VA ECMO
• Impella 5.5 trans-axillary support
• Left ventricular assist device (LVAD)
• Right ventricular assist device (RVAD)
• Biventricular assist device (BiVAD)
• Heart transplantation

What to expect if you have been referred for a heart transplant

Let us coordinate your care. Our experienced coordinators will hold your hands through this delicate process.

You will be scheduled to meet with various members of the heart transplant team in Temple, including the financial counselor, the social worker, coordinators, one of our dedicated heart failure cardiologists and one of our heart failure transplant and VAD surgeons.

We encourage all patients to bring as many family members as possible to these important meetings where all questions can be answered and shared input may lead to better long-term treatment choices.

Some patients may qualify to be admitted to the hospital and have most of the diagnostic studies performed during a short two-day stay.

Once the diagnostic studies are completed and meetings with the various team members are completed, our selection committee will meet (every Tuesday) to discuss the best options of treatment, your preferences, limitations and final planning.