Barnes-Jewish, Washington University team up on new outpatient center

By Asa Pittman, St. Louis Business Journal, February 24, 2006

Barnes-Jewish Hospital, in partnership with the Washington University School of Medicine, has launched a new Center for the Treatment of Valvular Heart Disease.

The outpatient center, which offers expedited diagnosis and treatment of heart-valve patients, opened Feb. 15.

"We''re offering a new route and an easier way for physicians to access exactly what they need (to treat) valvular disease," said Kathryn Cramer, operations and project manager for the division of cardiology at Washington University School of Medicine.

The Valvular Center is located in the eighth-floor clinic of Dr. Benico Barzilai at the Center for Advanced Medicine, a Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine co-facility located at the intersection of Forest Park Boulevard and Euclid Avenue.

Barzilai, a cardiologist and director of the new center, approached hospital administrators with the idea for the center six months ago in response to a trend he observed among his patients.

"We''re seeing a lot more patients with abnormal heart valves," he said. "I just wanted to find a more streamlined, efficient way to evaluate these patients."

Before the opening of the center, a diagnosis from the Barnes-Jewish cardiac division often required multiple trips to the hospital -- an initial meeting with a cardiologist, subsequent visits for testing and finally an examination by a surgeon. "Patients were taking weeks to complete an evaluation," Barzilai said.

Under the new Valvular Center''s system, cardiac patients or their primary care doctors can call the Barnes-Jewish physician referral hotline at 314-TOP-DOCS, connect with the center and request an appointment with a cardiac specialist. Valvular Center doctors would acquire and evaluate the patient''s medical records prior to a patient''s visit and schedule necessary tests. The patient and the cardiac specialist would meet within a week of the center''s receipt of the patient''s medical records. During the visit, the patient would consult with a cardiologist, and if need be, a cardiac surgeon. The pre-arranged testing, Barzilai said, would be done the day of the patient''s visit or within a day of consultation.

Along with efficient service, the center''s patients can expect their vascular disease and malfunctions to be treated using the latest technological advancements, he said.

"There''s been an explosion in cardiology technology," Barzilai said. The center offers diagnostic procedures such as magnetic resonance imaging, echocardiography and computerized tomography scans and also performs cutting-edge surgeries, he said. "We recently started doing a procedure in the cardiac catherization laboratory where we fix the mitral valve, not with surgery in the classic sense, but we take a clip and fix the leak with the clip."

While traditional mitral valve repair requires surgeons to open the patient''s chest, for the new, minimally invasive procedure, surgeons access the heart via the leg, reducing in-hospital recovery time from six or seven days to 24 to 48 hours in most cases, he said.

The Valvular Center''s creation and its innovative services cost Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine no additional expense, the school''s Cramer said. "All the physicians and staff were already in place."

Barzilai, with help from a nurse, will personally diagnose the center''s patients during its initial weeks of o peration. "I anticipate it''ll start slowly," he said of the Valvular Center''s client volume, "maybe two or three patients a week." Once word about the center spreads, and the number of valve patients increases, the center''s staff of six surgeons and eight cardiologists will take over patient care, and his duties will become more management oriented, Barzilai said. "I''m going to be doing the intake and trying to direct the flow (of patients)."

Patients will pay the same for a visit to the center as they would for a traditional consultation with a cardiologist, he said.

Heart-valve patients familiar with Barnes-Jewish''s cardiac division will not experience a change in their consultation and treatment routines, Cramer said. The only change heart-valve patients should anticipate is an improvement in care, she said.

"It''s not a physical change, it''s just a change in the way that we''re providing service. It''s more of a team approach now."

Asa Pittman is a St. Louis freelance writer.