PITTSBURGH, July 11, 2016 – A new partnership between Washington Health System (WHS) and the UPMC Heart and Vascular Institute will expand cardiac services in the Washington, Pennsylvania, area. Cardiac surgery services at Washington Hospital will now be performed by surgeons from UPMC, who will collaborate alongside WHS-Cardiovascular Care physicians and nurse practitioners, as well as all of the cardiologists and medical staff who practice at WHS.

 

Effective this month, a team of cardiothoracic surgeons from the UPMC Heart and Vascular Institute see patients in an office located at 125 N. Franklin Road, Suite 1-A, Washington, Pa., 15301. The office is in the same building as WHS-Cardiovascular Services. 

 

“Washington Health System is committed to enhancing the quality of health care for patients in our service area,” said Paul Cullen, M.D., vice president of medical affairs for WHS. “Having UPMC’s world class cardiac surgeons, right here in our community, will be beneficial to patients as well as WHS-affiliated medical providers. This partnership helps as we continue to strengthen our medical staff of over 200 primary care physicians and specialists and complements our ongoing efforts of collaborative care.”

 

Through the partnership, WHS is able to expand its cardiac service offerings to include the development of a transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) program, other minimally invasive procedures, and the expansion of heart failure and valve disease detection and management programs.

 

“This partnership between WHS and UPMC for cardiovascular care markedly expands the capabilities at WHS to facilitate the delivery of state-of-the-art cardiac surgery and therapeutics to residents of Washington and Greene counties,” said Thomas Gleason, M.D., chief of the UPMC Division of Cardiac Surgery and Ronald V. Pellegrini professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. “We look forward to jointly serving the patients in this region of western Pennsylvania.”

 

The cardiac surgery team at WHS includes Dr. Gleason; Chris Cook, M.D., cardiac surgeon at the UPMC Heart and Vascular Institute; Claudio Lima, M.D., director of cardiovascular surgery at UPMC Mercy and assistant professor of surgery at Pitt; and Forozan Navid, M.D., cardiac surgeon and clinical assistant professor of surgery at Pitt. 

 

For more information, call 724-250-4310 or visit www.whs.org.