Your heart in good hands

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Marcy Copeland
  • 56th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
LUKE AIR FORCE BASE, Ariz. --  As one walks through the medical clinic on Luke Air Force Base, it seems a typical clinic with a laboratory, military doctors and even a Women's Health Clinic, but a small shop hiding in the corridor treats one of the most important parts of the human body - the heart.

The 56th Medical Operations Squadron Cardiopulmonary office offers services to all active duty, civilian dependents and retirees that visit the Luke clinic. With more than 5,500 active duty and 84,000 beneficiaries seen at the clinic, the pulmonary office has a lot of hearts in their hands.

"We provide everything from electrocardiograms (ECGs or EKGs) to pulmonary function tests to ankle brachial diagnostic testing," said Staff Sgt. Yviana Reyes, 56th MDOS cardiopulmonary functional manager. "We test for exercise-induced asthma studies, 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring and 24-48 hour halter monitor tests."

The cardiopulmonary office helps to diagnose many diseases related to the heart and lungs. The office offers respiratory therapy, pulmonary diagnostics and noninvasive cardiology. Services such as electrocardiograms, exercise-induced testing and even sleep apnea test are conducted through the cardiopulmonary clinic.

The age range for heart and lungs is not limited to the elderly. The clinic has seen patients as young as age 5 for diagnostic testing of the heart. Patients as old as 90 have passed through the cardiopulmonary doors for treatment.

"Our patient age range is one of the interesting things here at Luke," Reyes said. "With our clinic being a walk-in with a referral from a primary care management doctor, we can provide EKGs and other services to between three and 20 patients a day. We never know how many people we may see on any given day but we will treat them right there on the spot."

The amount of training needed to hold a position in cardiopulmonary is one of the longer training schools for an Air Force Specialty Code. After basic training, Airmen attend technical training for a period of 233 days, earning 74 college credits and a bioenvironmental engineering technology degree.

"Our training is separated into two phases," said Airman 1st Class Melissa Yates, 56th MDOS cardiopulmonary technician. "The first phase is at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio. Phase two takes place at various sites where students receive hands-on training and apply the knowledge gained from phase one."

Every service member at the cardiopulmonary clinic is required to complete 500 readiness sustainment verification skills every two years.

"Our job requires us to complete 500 hours every two years," Reyes said. "Since Luke is not an inpatient hospital, we travel to Scottsdale to work with critical care patients in the intensive care unit to complete our training, working 12-hour shifts for three days, once a month to maintain our skills."

The cardiopulmonary office is a small shop with four Airmen, who take care of the needs of every patient that enters the clinic needing their help. With only a hallway and a few offices, the cardiopulmonary team works to treat, manage, and perform diagnostics on the young and elderly, including the people in between.