Dr. Jeffrey Tauth

The VCHS Difference

Looking for a Cardiology Practice in Central Arkansas? Here’s What Sets Vascular Center of Hot Springs Apart

Choosing a cardiologist is not the same as choosing a primary care doctor. The stakes are different, and so are the variables. The facility a cardiologist works out of, who owns it, and how it is structured have direct consequences for how quickly you are seen, which treatments are available to you, and how your care is managed over time.

In Hot Springs, most cardiology services are delivered through hospital systems or practices that operate under corporate ownership. Hot Springs Heart and Vascular does not. It is the only independent cardiovascular practice in the area, and that independence shapes every part of how patients are treated, from the first phone call to the procedure table.

Physician-Run Means Physician-Decided

At a hospital-owned or corporate cardiology practice, clinical decisions pass through administrative layers. Device purchasing is handled at the institutional level, often through contracts with a single vendor. Scheduling is managed by a centralized system. The physician sees the patient, but the structure around that encounter is controlled by people who are not in the room.

At Hot Springs Heart and Vascular and the Vascular Center of Hot Springs, board-certified interventional cardiologist Jeffrey Tauth, M.D., F.A.C.C. runs the practice and performs the procedures. There is no corporate ownership structure above him and no hospital administration between him and his patients. When a patient needs a stent, Dr. Tauth selects the device that fits that patient’s anatomy and condition, drawing from multiple manufacturers rather than whatever a contract specifies.

In interventional cardiology, the range of devices available for a given procedure matters. Coronary and peripheral arteries vary significantly in size, anatomy, and the nature of the plaque causing the blockage. A physician who can choose freely from the available device options is in a better position to match the right tool to the right situation than one whose choices are constrained by an institutional purchasing agreement.

Independent practices have that flexibility. Hospital-affiliated practices frequently do not.

Patients with active cardiac symptoms can call Hot Springs Heart and Vascular and be seen the same day.

One Location for Diagnosis and Treatment

Cardiology patients in the Hot Springs area are often sent to multiple locations. A primary care physician orders a referral. The cardiologist sees the patient and orders imaging. The imaging happens somewhere else. The results come back, and another appointment is scheduled. By the time a treatment plan is in place, weeks may have passed and the patient has visited two or three different facilities.

Hot Springs Heart and Vascular handles diagnostic testing in-clinic. Stress tests, echocardiography, nuclear cardiac imaging, carotid Doppler studies, and vascular assessments are all performed at the same location where patients are seen. Patients do not leave the practice to get tested and return later for results. The diagnostic workup and the conversation about what it means happen in the same place, with the same physician.

For patients managing an active cardiac condition, that consolidation matters beyond convenience. When a physician orders a test and reviews the results himself, the clinical picture is more complete than when results arrive from an outside facility and are reviewed in isolation from the original exam. Dr. Tauth conducts the evaluation, orders the testing, and interprets the results. Nothing is handed off to a third party and returned.

For patients who need a procedure after their evaluation, that procedure is performed at the Vascular Center of Hot Springs rather than referred to a hospital. From first appointment to completed intervention, the care stays within the same practice.

Accessibility That Other Practices Do Not Offer

When a patient calls most cardiology clinics, they reach an automated phone system that routes the call to a regional call center. The person who eventually answers is not at the practice, does not know the patient, and cannot look at the physician’s schedule and fit someone in. They take a message and route it back to the clinic, where it waits to be returned.

When a patient calls Hot Springs Heart and Vascular, the call is answered by a staff member who works at the clinic. That person has access to the schedule and can place a same-day appointment for a patient who is having symptoms. Dr. Tauth sees patients with active cardiac problems the same day they call.

This matters particularly for cardiology patients because cardiac symptoms are rarely predictable. A patient with coronary artery disease who develops new chest pain on a Tuesday morning should not be waiting three days for a callback. A patient who had a stent placed six months ago and is noticing new shortness of breath needs to be seen that day, not next week.

The ability to do that is a direct consequence of being independently operated. A small, physician-run practice with staff physically present at the clinic can respond in a way that a hospital-affiliated system with centralized scheduling cannot.

What the Ambulatory Surgical Center Adds

In April 2026, Dr. Tauth opened the Vascular Center of Hot Springs, an ambulatory surgical center that performs cardiac and peripheral vascular procedures. It is the first cardiovascular ASC in central Arkansas.

Procedures performed at the center include:

Patients are typically discharged the same day.

The ASC is not a standalone facility. It is a procedural extension of Dr. Tauth’s existing clinic, built so that patients who are evaluated at Hot Springs Heart and Vascular and need an intervention can have it done at the same practice, managed by the same physician, without being transferred to a hospital system.

That continuity is significant. When a physician performs both the diagnostic evaluation and the procedure, and then follows the patient afterward, the care is coherent in a way that referral-based models are not. Dr. Tauth knows what he found on the catheterization, what device he placed, and what the post-procedure course should look like. There is no handoff, no information gap, and no period during which the patient is in a facility that does not have their full clinical history.

Dr. Tauth performs more cardiac stent procedures than any other cardiologist in the Hot Springs area. The ASC was built to support that volume with the independence and physician-directed structure his practice has maintained from the beginning.

From first appointment to completed procedure, care at the Vascular Center of Hot Springs never leaves the same physician’s hands.

A Regional Practice, Not Just a Hot Springs One

Hot Springs Heart and Vascular draws patients from across central Arkansas, but the practice’s geographic reach extends further than Hot Springs. Dr. Tauth has operated a satellite clinic in Mena, Arkansas for more than 25 years. Mena is a small city about 90 miles northwest of Hot Springs in the Ouachita Mountains, and for much of that time Dr. Tauth has been the most consistent cardiology presence the community has had.

He travels to Mena three times each month for full days of patient appointments. On-site services in Mena include consultations, echocardiography, carotid Doppler, ECG, and vascular imaging. Patients who need stress testing, nuclear imaging, cardiac catheterization, or a procedure are scheduled at the Hot Springs location, where the same physician who saw them in Mena manages their care.

No other cardiologist has maintained a comparable presence in Mena over that span of time.

For patients anywhere in central or western Arkansas who are looking for cardiac care that is not routed through a hospital system, Hot Springs Heart and Vascular can be reached directly by phone at (501) 767-4278. A staff member answers, and same-day appointments are available for patients with active symptoms.

See the Difference Independent Cardiology Makes

If you are looking for a cardiology practice in Hot Springs that is not routed through a hospital system, Dr. Jeffrey Tauth welcomes new patients at Hot Springs Heart and Vascular. Call the clinic directly to schedule an appointment. Same-day appointments are available for patients who need to be seen promptly.