Practice Information · Locations
Areas I Serve in San Diego County
My office is in Encinitas, on the campus of Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas. Patients drive in from every corner of San Diego County, and a few from further. This page is the practical version of what to expect from your area: drive time, parking, the neighborhoods I see patients from most often, and the kinds of cardiology questions that bring people in from your community.
The office and how to get here
The Encinitas office sits at 320 Santa Fe Drive, Suite 204, two blocks east of I-5 and a short hop from the 101. Free patient parking is on-site, with covered shade for the warm months and ground-level access for anyone with mobility concerns. Inside, the practice operates as part of San Diego Cardiovascular Associates, the largest independent cardiology group in North County.
My exam rooms, in-office EKG, blood-pressure measurement, and basic point-of-care testing all live here. Outpatient studies that need bigger machines (cardiac CT, cardiac MRI, advanced stress imaging) get scheduled at the Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas campus next door. Anything requiring sedation, an invasive procedure, or hospital monitoring gets routed to Scripps Memorial Encinitas or Scripps Memorial La Jolla (Prebys Cardiovascular Institute), where I hold privileges and see patients on the inpatient side as well.
For booking, insurance verification, prescription refills, or anything operational, the practice front office handles every call at (760) 944-7300. Online appointment requests go through sdcva.com.
Encinitas (home base)
Encinitas patients have the easiest commute, since most local addresses are within five to ten minutes of the office. Leucadia, Cardiff-by-the-Sea, Olivenhain, and central Encinitas all flow into the Santa Fe Drive corridor without touching the freeway for more than a mile or two. Patients walking in same-week for a second opinion on a primary-care finding is a routine occurrence, and we keep a steady supply of new-patient slots open with that in mind.
The questions Encinitas patients bring me span the full range: new-onset palpitations someone wants explained, long-standing atrial fibrillation that needs a rhythm-control rethink, blood pressure that has crept up over a few years, statin questions, family history concerns, and prevention conversations that start with a Fitbit reading and end with a real cardiac risk plan. AFib management is probably the single most common reason patients in Encinitas come back year over year.
If you live in Encinitas and you're early in a workup, I usually recommend reading the AFib walkthrough first: Atrial flutter vs. atrial fibrillation: why the distinction matters. It sorts out the rhythm question more clearly than most online sources.
Carlsbad
Most Carlsbad patients are 8 to 15 minutes north on I-5 or the 101. La Costa, Aviara, Bressi Ranch, Carlsbad Village, and Olde Carlsbad all sit within easy reach. Patients coming from the eastern Carlsbad neighborhoods near Calavera Hills or near La Costa Resort sometimes prefer the 78 over I-5 during commute hours, which can shave five minutes off the trip.
The common reasons Carlsbad residents come in are preventive cardiology consultations, hypertension follow-up after primary care identified a blood-pressure pattern that needs more workup, and second opinions on incidental findings from a CT or echocardiogram done for another reason. Coronary artery calcium scoring is a frequent question from prevention-minded Carlsbad adults in their forties and fifties.
Carlsbad patients managing blood pressure at home benefit from a consistent measurement technique. My walkthrough is here: Home blood pressure monitoring done right.
Oceanside
Oceanside patients are typically 12 to 20 minutes north on I-5. With recent changes in North County hospital coverage, many Oceanside residents have looked south for cardiology care that isn't tied to a single local hospital system. Scripps Memorial Encinitas is the closest tertiary cardiac center for most of Oceanside, and the office in Encinitas keeps outpatient care close to that hospital network.
The patterns I see most from Oceanside are post-heart-attack follow-up (often coordinating with a local interventional cardiologist who placed the stent), long-term atrial fibrillation management, and ongoing heart failure care across both reduced and preserved ejection fraction subtypes. Sleep apnea evaluations frequently come up in this population, since untreated sleep apnea drives a lot of the AFib and heart-failure progression I see.
If you're navigating heart failure with reduced ejection fraction, my guide is here: Heart failure with reduced ejection fraction: what the diagnosis really means.
Solana Beach
Solana Beach is the easiest commute south of Encinitas, five to ten minutes on I-5 or down the 101 if you'd rather watch the ocean go by. The community runs active: surfers, runners, masters-level cyclists, and triathletes who train hard year-round. Most Solana Beach patients aren't coming in for the same chronic conditions I see further north.
A lot of the visits from Solana Beach center on palpitations during exercise that someone wants ruled out, athlete cardiac screening before ramping up training, and risk assessment for adults who want a clear picture of their cardiovascular reserve before committing to a marathon or an Ironman build. PVCs that show up during interval workouts are one of the most common reasons new patients arrive from this area.
If you're an active adult chasing down an exercise palpitation question, the PVC walkthrough is the right starting point: PVCs and what they mean for athletes.
Del Mar
Del Mar is 10 to 15 minutes south of the office. Patients coming from the village or Del Mar Heights typically take I-5 to the Lomas Santa Fe exit, then surface streets north. Del Mar Mesa and Carmel Valley-adjacent addresses route through the 56 instead. The drive is short enough that morning labs at Scripps Encinitas plus an in-office appointment the same morning works for many patients.
The Del Mar patient profile leans prevention-focused. Many come in after a thorough physical raised a question about cholesterol numbers, calcium score, or family history, and they want a careful workup before deciding on therapy. Lipid optimization with apolipoprotein B and lipoprotein(a) testing is a frequent conversation, and CAC-guided risk stratification informs a lot of the decisions about whether to start a statin, intensify an existing one, or add a non-statin agent.
The prevention conversation usually starts with a calcium score. My patient guide is here: Coronary artery calcium scoring explained.
Carmel Valley
Carmel Valley sits 12 to 18 minutes south of the office, depending on whether you take I-5 or the 56. The neighborhoods around Pacific Highlands Ranch, Torrey Hills, and the older central Carmel Valley grid all route in easily, and the One Paseo / Del Mar Highlands corridor patients often combine the appointment with a coffee or errand on the way back.
Carmel Valley draws a prevention-focused crowd, similar to Del Mar but trending slightly younger. Most patients are working professionals in their thirties through fifties asking the early-prevention questions: family history of premature heart disease, an elevated LDL discovered on an annual physical, or a wearable-detected rhythm finding they want explained. Many Carmel Valley patients first see me as a one-time risk-assessment consult, then re-engage years later for ongoing management as their picture evolves.
If you're a Carmel Valley adult sorting through whether your LDL number actually matters, my piece is here: LDL cholesterol and what to do about it.
San Marcos
San Marcos is 18 to 25 minutes east of the office via the 78. The Lake San Marcos, San Elijo Hills, and central San Marcos neighborhoods all funnel through the 78 to I-5 northbound, with the Rancho Santa Fe Road exit serving as a useful alternate during morning rush. Cal State San Marcos faculty and staff have a similar drive pattern, often combining the trip with other errands on the coast.
The cardiometabolic risk profile in San Marcos runs higher on average than the coastal cities. Most common referrals from this area are hypertension that hasn't responded to one or two medications, diabetes-related cardiovascular risk assessment (often before starting an SGLT2 inhibitor or GLP-1), and chest-pain evaluation referred from primary care. I work closely with several San Marcos primary care practices for shared management of patients with overlapping diabetes, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia.
The cluster of diabetes, blood pressure, and lipid problems often gets the umbrella label metabolic syndrome. My explainer is here: Metabolic syndrome and your heart.
Rancho Santa Fe
Rancho Santa Fe is 15 to 20 minutes east, depending on whether you take Rancho Santa Fe Road through Olivenhain or Linea del Cielo. The Covenant, Fairbanks Ranch, and the newer estates along Del Dios all route in cleanly. Patients from the Crosby and Cielo neighborhoods often combine the visit with an existing appointment at a concierge practice in the area.
The Rancho Santa Fe patient profile is concierge-medicine adjacent. Many patients arrive with a workup already underway from their concierge practice and want a sub-specialist second opinion before agreeing to a recommended therapy. Executive cardiac screening, premature coronary disease workup driven by a family history of early heart attacks, and advanced lipid panels (with lipoprotein(a) and apolipoprotein B) are the conversations that come up most often.
When a strong family history is the reason for the visit, lipoprotein(a) is the marker that drives the most action. My patient guide is here: Lipoprotein(a) and inherited heart risk.
La Jolla
La Jolla patients are typically 25 to 30 minutes south on I-5, and most prefer to do their outpatient cardiology in Encinitas while keeping hospital-based testing closer to home. That works smoothly because I hold privileges at Scripps Memorial La Jolla and the Prebys Cardiovascular Institute, so the arrangement looks like this: outpatient visits, EKGs, and routine echocardiograms happen in Encinitas, while cardiac catheterization, advanced cardiac imaging, and any procedure requiring sedation happen at Scripps La Jolla under the same physician.
The most common reasons La Jolla patients come up the coast are structural heart consultations (valve disease evaluation, severe mitral regurgitation, aortic stenosis trending toward intervention), cardiac catheterization for chest pain with concerning noninvasive testing, and ongoing care across both campuses where the continuity matters more than the geographic convenience. Some La Jolla patients live closer to UCSD but come to Scripps for the cardiac-specific subspecialty access at Prebys.
If cardiac catheterization is on the table or has already been recommended, the patient guide is here: Heart catheterization and stenting.
San Diego (Central, Mission Valley, North Park)
Patients from the greater central San Diego area typically drive 30 to 45 minutes north for cardiology care. The drive is meaningful, so visits often get consolidated onto testing days when possible: lab work, echocardiogram, and an in-office consult all on the same morning, with follow-up by phone or video for routine adjustments.
The reasons central San Diego patients make the trip cluster into three buckets. The first is sub-specialty consultations: a question their current cardiologist hasn't been able to fully answer, where a structured second opinion is worth the drive. The second is second opinions on prior cardiology recommendations, often around whether a recommended procedure is the right next step or whether medical management could still be optimized. The third is access to AI-enhanced cardiac imaging and structured prevention workups that may not be readily available at their current practice.
Advanced imaging is often the practical reason for the consult. My patient guide to cardiac MRI is here: Cardiac MRI: what it is, what it shows, and when it changes care.
Beyond San Diego County
A handful of patients drive in from Riverside County (Temecula, Murrieta), south Orange County (San Clemente, Dana Point), and occasionally from Imperial County for specific consultations that aren't readily found closer to home. These visits typically get scheduled around testing days, sometimes paired with a day-trip plan that combines the appointment with other reasons to be in coastal North County. Patients coming down from south Orange County usually find the drive to my Encinitas office is shorter than driving inland to their nearest cardiology subspecialist, and the coastal route keeps things predictable.
If you're driving in from outside San Diego County, calling the practice in advance helps the front office set up your visit efficiently. Many out-of-area patients do their initial workup in person and then transition to telehealth follow-up once the diagnostic picture is clear, which keeps the multi-hour drive to a once-or-twice-a-year occurrence rather than every appointment. Out-of-state patients usually require an in-person visit at least annually for the relationship to remain active for prescription management.
Insurance, referrals, and what to bring
Insurance verification, prior authorizations, and referrals all run through the San Diego Cardiovascular Associates front office. The practice accepts Medicare and most commercial plans, including Blue Shield of California, Anthem Blue Cross, Aetna, UnitedHealthcare, Cigna, Health Net, and TriCare West. HMO plans typically require a referral from your primary care physician before the first cardiology visit. If you're not sure whether your plan requires a referral, the fastest answer comes from calling (760) 944-7300 and asking the front office to check your specific coverage in real time.
For your first visit, bring your insurance card, photo ID, a current medication list with dosages and frequencies (over-the-counter supplements included), any prior cardiac test results you can access (echocardiograms, stress tests, EKGs, cardiac CT scans, catheterization reports), and the referral paperwork if your plan requires it. If you have records on a hospital portal, screenshots of the reports are fine. Patients coming from out of the Scripps network often find that requesting a CD copy of prior imaging from the originating facility a week before the visit saves time during the appointment itself.
Plan to arrive 15 minutes early for the front-desk paperwork. The first visit usually runs 45 to 60 minutes and includes a 12-lead EKG, blood pressure measurement in both arms, and a thorough history. The plan that comes out of the visit typically involves some combination of in-office testing, outpatient testing scheduled at Scripps, and a follow-up visit two to four weeks later.
Telehealth follow-ups for established patients
Once an in-person workup is done, follow-up visits for stable established patients can often happen by phone or video. Medication adjustments, lab result reviews, blood-pressure trend reviews from home monitors, and check-ins on lifestyle plans all translate well to telehealth. This works especially well for patients coming up from central San Diego, down from south Orange County, or from inland communities where a 45-minute drive each way for a 20-minute conversation doesn't make sense.
Visits requiring a physical exam, an EKG, an echocardiogram, or any other in-office test still need to happen in person. New-patient visits also need to be in person so the relationship starts with a real exam and a real conversation, not a video screen. The front office can route you to the right visit type when you call to schedule.
Same-week visits and urgent questions
For urgent cardiology questions that aren't emergencies, the practice front office usually has same-week or next-week new-patient slots available. Same-day urgent visits for established patients happen often, most commonly for new chest pain, new palpitations that won't quiet down, or sudden worsening of a known condition.
If you're having symptoms that feel like a heart attack, call 911 or get to the nearest emergency department immediately. Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas is the closest emergency department to the office, with a 24-hour cardiac catheterization lab. The practice cannot manage acute heart-attack symptoms in the office setting, so emergency department first, cardiology follow-up next is always the right sequence for anything acute.