February 2021

ONE PATIENT, ONE DOCTOR, ONE NURSE; SOUTH BAY VASCULAR CENTER’S COMMITMENT TO PERSONALIZED CARE

Posted on February 24, 2021October 27, 2021 by Michael Kokinos

Unlike so many big box medical centers (Kaiser, Sutter, PAMF, Stanford) where patients are often “overwhelmed” as soon as they get to the parking lot, South Bay Vascular Center and Vein Institute offers world class, cutting edge vascular surgical care in a kinder, gentler environment. Individualized patient care, although talked about and marketed heavily by these corporate health systems, more often than not falls far short of patient expectations as higher order operational efficiencies and profitability concerns impact the kind of care patients actually experience in these larger health care systems.

ONE PATIENT; ONE DOCTOR; ONE NURSE.

Putting patients at the center of everything that a physician does is a philosophy that sounds obvious…but is that always the case? At South Bay Vascular Center we are honored by the chance to earn your trust and to serve as your physicians; BUT, we also know that we must EARN the trust of every patient that we see. That’s why our CREDENTIALS are NOT Enough…That’s why our REPUTATION is NOT enough. That’s why unmatched patient care is at the center of everything that we do. That’s why when patients come to our facility for a procedure each patient has their own nurse from start to finish to ensure the greatest patient care experience from start to finish.

We know patients have options for their vascular care and that’s why we work hard to ensure that any patient referred to us by another doctor or that comes to us on their own has the confidence to know they’ve made the right choice of doctor to help them with their vascular related illnesses. ONE PATIENT; ONE DOCTOR; ONE NURSE is just one of the many ways that South Bay Vascular Center demonstrates our commitment to our patients in our efforts to provide the most advanced vascular care options offered anywhere in the world.

OUR TEAM

Together with her full time, highly skilled team of critical care and surgical nurses, radiological technicians, RVT certified Ultrasound Technologists and scrub assistants, Dr Kokinos provides unmatched peripheral vascular surgical care in her Nationally Accredited Surgical Facility. As diverse as Silicon Valley is, our staff reflects this same diversity as we have native speaking staff fluent in over 10 different languages. Be it Vietnamese, Mandarin, Korean, Russian, Tagalog, Hindi, Spanish, French, Greek or English, we have staff to make our patients comfortable in their native tongue.

OUR FACILITY

The South Bay Vascular Ambulatory Surgery facility is one dedicated entirely to the practice of Vascular Surgery and houses a specialized inventory of vascular medical devices and imaging equipment that surpasses the number of vascular medical devices and imaging equipment at Good Samaritan and O’Connor Hospitals combined. Together with her highly trained and specialized team, Dr Kokinos brings over 30 years of surgical experience and 7 years of specialized surgical experience operating in a specially built vascular surgery outpatient facility to her patients. Other physicians may claim to have the kind of training and experience that Dr Kokinos has in the outpatient environment, but NO other Vascular Surgeon in Silicon Valley comes anywhere close to having the kind of experience and outcomes Dr Kokinos does when it comes to providing care to the patients who come to her for the treatments and care of their vascular disease.

Put another way, for 25 years Dr Kokinos and her team at South Bay Vascular Center and Vein Institute have provided unmatched, compassionate and individualized vascular surgical care to South Bay communities. It is why more independent physicians refer their vascular patients to Dr Kokinos than to all the other Silicon Valley vascular surgeons combined. When it comes to your health, we know that it’s not just our credentials and our experience that count. It’s not about just having an accredited facility or a staff of travelling specialists to help when needed… It’s about the RIGHT KIND OF EXPERIENCE EVERY TIME YOU NEED IT.

RESULTS matter when it comes to your health because sometimes you don’t get a second chance.

South Bay Vascular Center and Vein Institute: We Offer Hope When Others Say there Is None.

Call us at 408-376-3626. We Can Help

FOOT PAIN AT NIGHT: IT MIGHT BE MORE SERIOUS THAN YOU THINK

Posted on February 8, 2021February 8, 2021 by Michael Kokinos

Many patients over the age of 65 who have a history of smoking, diabetes, high blood pressure, and/or high cholesterol wake up at night with pain in their foot or toes. Some believe this is arthritis or gout; others think it is the result of just spending too much time on their feet during the day. Patients often self-adapt to this problem, as it usually develops slowly over time, but when questioned about their sleep habits, they will sometimes tell you that they sleep in a recliner or they sleep with their leg hanging over the side of the bed to make their pain go away.

It is very common for elderly patients to get up at night to go to the bathroom. Sometimes, however, it’s actually foot pain that wakes them up. Once up, they get out of bed because that makes their feet feel better (again due to gravity) and after walking to the bathroom they can go back to sleep, pain -free for a couple of hours. Even that small amount of walking helps to get their blood flowing again and makes it easier for them to go back to sleep.

Sometimes, foot pain at night is the sign of a more serious condition.

Foot pain at night may be related to having poor circulation in the foot. The name for this in medical terms is “rest pain”. This is not “pain at rest” but rather pain that happens because the circulation cannot support the tissues even when they are at rest.

Foot pain at night may be an early warning sign of critical limb ischemia.

Chronic Limb Ischemia is another term for lack of blood flow; if you experience this rest pain at night and it goes away after hanging your foot over the side of the bed or chair you are sleeping in, immediately call and speak with your doctor to set up an appointment for them to evaluate your symptoms. Although it may come on slowly, the arteries in your feet may be so blocked that they cannot even deliver the minimal amount of oxygen the tissues in the foot and toes need to keep them nourished. Left untreated, this blockage can lead to a more serious problem, amputation or even death.

What’s important for the patient to realize is that chronic limb ischemia causes the foot and leg to get swollen, so the patient is often MIS-DIAGNOSED with a vein problem, not an arterial problem

It is the “Right” experience that matters in diagnosing these kinds of vascular problems and why more local independent physicians refer their vein and vascular patients to Dr Kokinos than to any other vascular surgeon in the Silicon Valley Region. https://www.southbayvascular.com/blog/the-right-experience-counts-when-it-comes-to-your-health/

If this sounds like something you or someone you love is experiencing, it is important to tell your primary care doctor OR schedule an appointment DIRECTLY with a vascular surgeon. These symptoms are a sign that your body is giving you that you may need immediate help. This truly is a sign that your foot is starving for oxygen and blood and that if left untreated, might lead to an unnecessary amputation. Help is possible, however and if treated early enough, those suffering from these symptoms can be helped significantly.

If you suffer from painful feet in the middle of the night, WE CAN HELP

South Bay Vascular Center and Vein Institute: We Offer Hope When Others Say There Is None.

COMMITTED TO YOUR HEALTH: SOUTH BAY VASCULAR CENTER CELEBRATES ITS 25TH YEAR IN PRIVATE PRACTICE

Posted on February 2, 2021February 3, 2021 by Michael Kokinos

Having dedicated her career to providing cutting edge care to patients suffering from vascular disease, Dr Kokinos has earned her reputation as being San Jose and the South Bay’s most trusted Vascular Surgeon. As we begin our 25th year in private practice we are deeply honored to have had this opportunity to meet and to care for so many patients in our community and remain committed to offering the most advanced vascular surgical and clinical care found anywhere in the world.

Over the past 25 years Dr Kokinos has performed over 20,000 varicose vein procedures, thousands of peripheral revascularizations and has pioneered the use of IVUS (intravascular ultrasound) to assist in the diagnosis and treatment of chronic leg swelling. Benefitting from her expertise, vascular surgeons from throughout the region have trained in her outpatient lab on how to both identify and to treat May Thurners disease much of which had previously gone undiagnosed and untreated. By giving back in this way, Dr Kokinos expands on her reputation as the valleys pre-eminent vascular surgeon and continues to set the standard of care in the diagnosis and treatment of patients suffering from complex vascular disease. (Visit our website www.southbayvascular.com to read over 150 reviews from patients treated by Dr Kokinos and her staff)

In response to the overwhelming growth of our practice during the past year we continue to expand our care throughout the South Bay. Having expanded our services to Gilroy 8 years ago, we are now proud to announce the expansion of our vascular ultrasound services to our newest location in Hollister. Growing ever closer to our patients, our newest office offers vascular ultrasound services to an underserved community and now gives patients suffering from complex vascular disease a gateway to the most advanced vascular surgical care found anywhere in the world.

Offering Hope When Others Say There Is None is at the core of what we do. If you or anyone you know is suffering from a circulation related illness, un-matched world class Vascular Surgical care is available at South Bay Vascular Center and Vein Instute.

Call us today to schedule an appointment at 408-376-3626.

South Bay Vascular Center and Vein Institute. Un-Matched Vascular Surgical Care

www.southbayvascular.com