Gulf Coast Medical Center Expands Cardiology Services

July 06, 2011

Hospital Also Earns Distinction as Area’s First and Only Accredited Chest Pain Center

Panama City, FL – Gulf Coast Medical Center CEO Brian Baumgardner announced today a major expansion in the hospital’s cardiology program.  “Today, Gulf Coast Medical Center fulfills a longstanding request from the community and physicians for patients to have another choice of where they can receive interventional cardiology services.  I am proud to announce that patients in Bay and surrounding counties can now have acute cardiac care, such as stents and angioplasty, performed at Gulf Coast Medical Center.

“Our message to the community is in matters of cardiac care it’s, ‘Your Heart.  Your Choice.’  To demonstrate the hospital’s commitment to providing the best cardiac care, we can also announce Gulf Coast Medical Center has received notification from the Society of Chest Pain Centers that it is the area’s first – and only – Accredited Chest Pain Center,” Baumgardner stated.

The plan to add interventional cardiology services began nearly two years ago as a result of patient and physician input regarding additional options in the community.  The hospital studied programs that had high outcomes and high patient satisfaction.

The hospital’s Chief Operating Officer Nancy Dodson said, “What the top programs have in common are the best people, the best processes, and the best technology.  Our Cath Lab teams were already excellent, but they needed additional training in interventional cardiology care.  To accomplish this, we sent our associates to high-performing hospitals around the country to make sure when they returned to our hospital they had the necessary experience.

“In the meantime, our clinical teams worked together to make sure our processes from the paramedics, to our ER, to our cardiologists, and Cath Lab teams stayed focused on the patient who was having a heart attack.  This was a very intense process, but it was necessary in order to give our community confidence in our ability to perform a higher acuity of cardiac care than we had been,” said Dodson.

Prior to the launch of its interventional cardiology program, the hospital also worked closely with the Bay and surrounding counties’ ambulance programs to establish protocols to follow when a patient was identified as having a heart attack and was being taken to Gulf Coast Medical Center.

Dr. Debra Williams, medical director of the hospital’s Emergency Department says, “The mock drills we did with area paramedics were invaluable exercises in that they provided real-time training to our teams.  From an emergency medicine perspective, they did a tremendous job.”  Dr. Williams added that Gulf Coast Medical Center even equipped Bay Medical Center and Gulf County ambulances with state-of-the-art technology that allows paramedics to send EKGs digitally to the Emergency Department while the patient in en route.

“The digital signal is a much cleaner signal than we were receiving in the past.  With the technology we provided, ER physicians and cardiologists can have more confidence in their diagnosis.”

Cardiologist Dr. Nayan Bhatt serves as the medical director of the hospital’s cardiology department.  He’s been in practice for more than 15 years. “I’m very impressed with the hospital’s high standards and their attention to detail.  Providing high quality interventional cardiac care requires many teams to work together.  It also requires trust.  Today’s announcement is an important milestone for this hospital.  It’s also an important day for our community in that Gulf Coast Medical Center has increased access to cardiac care, which makes for a healthier community.”