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Cardiovascular Consultants group provides cardiologists
ALLIANCE/CANTON
A partnership between Aultman Heart Center and Alliance Community Hospital, combined with Cardiovascular Consultants, has been formed to bring enhanced heart care to the Alliance community.
The new partnership combines Cardiovascular Consultants, a cardiology group of 18 board-certified cardiologists, with the Aultman Heart Center to deliver the most complete heart care to the Alliance community, said Stephanie Boyd, on-site director of the Aultman Heart Center at Alliance Community Hospital (ACH).
The partnership also allows for coordination of care, standardization of processes and education of the nursing staff, and a high level of health care excellence, said Boyd, an Alliance native.
Boyd, a registered nurse, will help bridge the clinical education, certification and service line protocols by taking what is done at Aultman to the heart program at ACH, said Chris Schoelles, vice president of heart and vascular services at Aultman.
Dr. John Prodafikas will be the on-site medical director for the program.
Together, Dr. Prodafikas and Boyd, of Alliance, will oversee the program and lead the coordination between the organizations, Schoelles said.
“The Aultman Heart Center isn’t a physical building - meaning there is no new building or renovations at ACH,” Boyd said.
Rather, she said, it’s a philosophy or model of care aimed at achieving a higher level of knowledge and practice to care for cardiac needs and improving patient care delivery.
“This partnership is patient-centered and focused on the latest evidence-based practice,” Boyd said.
Also, she said, patients and physicians will continue to have choices as they make referral decisions based on what is best for the patients’ needs and care.
The program’s design will afford the Alliance community access to Aultman Hospital’s expertise and cardiac care locally while having the ease of transfer to Aultman Hospital to receive the tertiary care that Aultman provides when needed, Boyd said.
Aultman Heart Center is not the first collaboration between the two hospital systems.
For instance, ACH and Aultman Hospital, along with Aultman Orrville Hospital (formerly Dunlap Community Hospital, Pomerene Hospital and Union Hospital, formed the Independent Hospital Network (IHN) in 1996.
The mission of IHN is to ensure the community hospitals involved remain not-for-profit facilities that are locally owned and managed, as well as working together to improve patient care, increase patient satisfaction, and reduce expanses, officials said.
“We’re excited to pair the expertise of the Aultman Heart Center with the service and quality that our patients have come to know and appreciate at Alliance Community,” said Stan Jonas, ok chief executive officer of ACH.