Hartford Business Journal

HartfordBusiness.com | February 22, 2021 | Hartford Business Journal 17 Q&A with Saint Francis Hospital President Thomas Burke SPONSORED CONTENT Thomas Burke BPharm, MBA, President of Saint Francis Hospital F ebruary isn't just for chocolate and roses, but a reminder to focus on your heart health. Despite the great challenges of living through a pandemic, doctors say cardiovascular care remains as important as ever during the 57th annual American Heart Month. As part of Trinity Health Of New England, Saint Francis Hospital is able to develop cutting- edge programs for integrated care of patients, including the Cardiovascular Service Line, based at the Hoffman Heart and Vascular Institute. Here, Thomas Burke, BPharm, MBA, President of Saint Francis Hospital, shares their innovation, growth, and expansion plans to continue to offer the community the highest quality, safest care, tailored to an individual's unique needs. Q: How is Saint Francis Hospital working to provide top-of-the- line services and programs to patients, at the lowest cost, regardless of where they reside? A: Patients who are in the community want quality care as close to home as possible, and we recognize that. We're creating a "hub and spoke" model which allows our patients, regardless of where they live, to have access to all the cutting-edge services we offer, using outreach clinics, and Trinity Health Of New England's robust Telehealth services. We're building the infrastructure to allow for a seamless transition into more advanced care in the hospital when necessary. This gives our patients access to the most modern cardiovascular intervention and procedures in the region through the Hoffman Heart and Vascular Institute at Saint Francis Hospital in Hartford. Q: What are some of the most exciting developments within the Hoffman Heart and Vascular Institute and Cardiovascular Service Line at Saint Francis? A: Our teams are working to create a hospital within a hospital, taking a Center of Excellence, and focusing our cardiovascular services there to best serve the community. This makes it physically and clinically easier to treat the patient. It allows us to put complementing services and technologies in one location, so different divisions of the cardiovascular team can share knowledge and expertise. This allows things to run more efficiently and puts experts within arm's length of each other. Q: Trinity Health Of New England is committed to state-of-the-art, innovative procedures. What are some of the newest technologies that Saint Francis Hospital is using? A: The Cardiac Surgical Program provides a comprehensive array of the most cutting-edge surgical techniques. Recently, Saint Francis was the first hospital in the region to implement the newest Impella device. It's a very unique, minimally invasive heart pump that is implanted surgically. We also completed the first WATCHMAN procedure to be performed in our facility. That's a one-time minimally invasive procedure for people with A-Fib, atrial fibrillation, the most common type of heart arrhythmia. It provides those patients an alternative to taking blood thinners for the rest of their lives. We also offer robotic-assisted cardiac surgeries, allowing surgeons to perform complex tasks through tiny incisions with less pain and scarring. Q: What changes in health care, including cardiology, have come about since the beginning of the pandemic? A: The pandemic continues to transform health care as we know it. Telehealth is now thriving. It was not a big tool in our toolbox when this all started, but now we know it as a safe, effective way for people to get preventative care and wellness visits, including with their cardiologists. Routine health care is so important during this time. The pandemic has forced us to rethink how quickly we embraced Telehealth, and now it's really a dynamic part of how we provide care, and it's here to stay. Expansion, Innovation & Accessibility: Making Heart Health a Priority

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