Clinical Component

Navigating the Clinical Component

A Procedurally Focused Practice with Exceptional Lab Access

Your clinical week centers on catheterization lab work rather than outpatient clinic volume. You will typically spend four of every five weekdays in the lab, a level of procedural access that stands in stark contrast to large academic or multi-hospital groups where 12 interventionalists compete for limited lab time. The practice maintains this high lab utilization because regional demand consistently exceeds capacity. You will not find yourself sitting idle waiting for cases or fighting colleagues for procedure slots. Instead, the challenge becomes choosing which cases to schedule from a backlog of patients genuinely needing your expertise.

The facilities include four cardiac catheterization labs on the main hospital campus, with two dedicated to peripheral vascular work and one reserved for structural heart procedures including TAVRs. Coronary interventions can be performed in any of these labs, giving you flexibility in scheduling. Two additional electrophysiology labs are expanding to four within the hospital, and a cardiovascular-only ambulatory surgery center opening in spring 2026 will add two more procedural suites, significantly increasing overall system capacity. This ASC will allow you to perform appropriate outpatient cases in a more efficient environment while reserving hospital resources for complex, high-acuity patients.

• Epic electronic medical record system provides seamless documentation and order entry across inpatient and outpatient settings. The platform includes integrated PACS for rapid image review and remote access for call coverage, allowing you to review angiograms, CTAs, and ultrasounds from home rather than driving to the hospital for every consultation.
• Patient population reflects the socioeconomic and health challenges of rural North Florida and South Georgia, including high rates of diabetes, tobacco use, and poorly controlled hypertension. You will encounter advanced peripheral arterial disease and critical limb ischemia at rates exceeding metropolitan practice environments, providing substantial procedural volume but also requiring patience with patients who may have delayed care due to access barriers, financial constraints, or health literacy challenges.
• Your coronary work includes the full spectrum of interventional procedures from straightforward single-vessel disease to complex left main interventions, chronic total occlusions, and rotational atherectomy. The group performs fractional flow reserve (FFR) assessments routinely and has established a cardiogenic shock program using Impella support devices for high-risk interventions. You will serve as part of the STEMI activation team, taking call for acute myocardial infarctions within the regional referral area.
• Advanced peripheral and critical limb ischemia work distinguishes this practice from typical community cardiology groups. You will perform deep venous arterialization (DVA) via the LimFlow system, detour procedures co-managed with vascular surgery, and complex antegrade and retrograde tibial interventions for patients who have exhausted standard revascularization options. This work requires technical skill, procedural patience, and genuine interest in limb salvage rather than viewing peripheral cases as secondary to coronary work.
• Collaboration with vascular surgery creates a true hybrid approach to complex patients rather than the territorial conflicts common in many institutions. The two vascular surgeons employed by Southern Medical Group work cooperatively with interventional cardiologists, often scrubbing cases together when hybrid approaches offer the best outcomes. You can consult colleagues intraoperatively to determine whether surgical or endovascular techniques make more sense for a specific lesion, then execute the plan collaboratively rather than each specialty working in isolation.

Manageable Call with No General Cardiology Responsibilities

Call coverage represents one of the most favorable aspects of this practice structure. You will take call approximately every fifth week, rotating through weekend responsibilities with colleagues who genuinely respect boundaries and provide thorough sign-out. Unlike many hospital-based models where interventionalists also cover general cardiology admissions, this group eliminated that expectation years ago after recognizing the burnout it created.

Weekend call involves three physicians: one interventional cardiologist, one non-invasive cardiologist, and one electrophysiologist. These three colleagues split responsibilities, with the interventionalist handling STEMI activations, urgent coronary interventions, and temporary pacemaker management while the non-invasive and EP physicians manage inpatient rounding and new consultations. You will not spend your weekends admitting volume overload or managing routine heart failure exacerbations. Night coverage during weekends rotates between Friday night and Saturday night only, with Sunday evening typically falling during the following week's call rotation.

• Call volume remains manageable rather than overwhelming, with genuine emergencies infrequent enough that you can plan family commitments and personal activities even during call weeks. Colleagues describe rare instances where they needed to return to the hospital overnight, with most calls handled via phone consultation or deferring non-urgent issues to morning rounds.
• Phone triage support filters unnecessary calls before they reach you, with experienced nurses screening questions and handling routine issues independently. You receive calls for genuine clinical concerns requiring physician judgment rather than fielding every family member question or medication refill request that arises after hours.
• Home call with Epic remote access allows you to review imaging, labs, and patient information from your house rather than driving to the hospital for every consultation. For STEMI activations or urgent procedures, the team calls you at home with enough advance notice that you arrive at the hospital simultaneously with the patient, avoiding the need to stay physically present in-house during call coverage.

Comprehensive Equipment Access and Institutional Support

The practice and hospital administration maintain a consistent philosophy that physicians should have access to the tools needed to perform advanced work rather than being limited by arbitrary cost constraints or outdated equipment.

You will have access to advanced atherectomy systems, intravascular imaging including IVUS and OCT, hemodynamic support devices including Impella, and the specialized equipment required for deep venous arterialization and other cutting-edge peripheral procedures. The LimFlow system for DVA and the technology for detour procedures position you to offer techniques available at only select advanced centers nationally. This equipment access matters because it allows you to provide definitive care locally rather than transferring complex patients to Gainesville, Jacksonville, or Pensacola when their disease exceeds the capabilities of standard endovascular approaches.

Beyond procedural tools, you benefit from comprehensive cardiovascular imaging including cardiac CT, cardiac MRI, nuclear perfusion studies, and cardiac PET imaging. Southern Medical Group maintains one of the highest cardiac MRI volumes among private practices in Florida, giving you access to sophisticated anatomic and functional assessment that enhances procedural planning and post-intervention surveillance. Advanced imaging helps you identify patients who need invasive intervention versus those who can be managed medically, improving appropriateness of care while maintaining strong procedural volume through accurate patient selection.