In 2017, the first patient walked out of the doors of Spartanburg Medical Center with a new heart valve — but for the first time, they walked out just 48 hours after the procedure without having to undergo surgery. SMC’s health program introduced TAVR as a non-surgical way to combat aortic stenosis.
More than 300 patients have received this potentially life-saving treatment in the past four years at Spartanburg Medical Center; however, access to that treatment has not reached all areas of our community. Over the past two years, a rigorous population analytic study of TAVR patients and community-members has revealed that black patients are not represented in the TAVR patient population in accordance with the community demographics, despite having equal or higher levels of risk for needing the procedure. Our mission is to eliminate this disparity.
