Among Atlanta heart-care providers, Piedmont is unparalleled in:

• Quality
• Technology
• And Key Outcomes

… But we’ve only just begun.

Piedmont Heart Institute is unique in that it is physician-led. This model only exists in top heart centers. When Piedmont invited Atlanta’s best heart doctors to lead its new program alongside our CEO, they signed on … by the scores … and more top specialists are on the way.

 [CEO MICHELE MOLDEN:] “We asked the doctors to form and run the Institute in a true partnership. That’s a first in the Southeast. Now, with interests truly aligned, patients are being treated faster, better and more efficiently.”

With nearly 80 specialists, PHI is among the nation’s largest cardiovascular practices. Beyond our hospitals, PHI physicians serve patients in 33 offices statewide. But “large” is not the goal; the goal is superior care. And we’ve already seen major advances in patient care and outcomes. [INSERT KEYNOTE CHARTS]

• Since forming PHI, our angioplasty mortality and complications have dropped 70%, and they far exceed national averages. The national quality benchmark for angioplasty is 1.2 deaths per 100 patients. PHI’s rate was 0.6 in 2008.
• The benchmark for cardiac bypass is 1.6 deaths per 100 patients. At Piedmont, it is 59% lower – 0.65 per 100 patients in 2009.
• When patients having a heart attack arrive at a hospital, national guidelines call for a balloon catheter to open a blocked artery within 90 minutes – the faster, the better. At Piedmont, our success rate is 100% and our average time is exceptional: 57 minutes. No other Atlanta hospital has accomplished this critical reduction in the time that blood starts flowing again to vital organs. 

These documented improvements and others have come about through quality measures that are truly comprehensive, yet the program is young; Piedmont Heart Institute has just begun its journey to become a nationally acclaimed and pursued cardiovascular program.

PHI QUALITY IS COMPREHENSIVE & TRANSPARENT

Piedmont Heart Institute’s approach to quality is far from typical. The Quality and IT department is headed by a cardiologist with a PhD in biomathmatical sciences. With a team of full-time cardiac nurses, Dr. Mark Cohen leads his physician peers in making sure that care is based on the best of science. Here are a couple of ways in which care is superior:

PHI exceeds guideline-based care. Piedmont was Atlanta’s only hospital to earn the American Heart Association’s top-level gold “Get With The Guidelines” award in the July 2009 Best Hospitals issue of U.S. News & World Report. The recognition, earned two-years running, is based on exceptional compliance with best practices measures. 

PHI also makes high-level use of electronic medical records. Delivery of care is monitored at each step. [DR. COHEN:] “Physicians work in tandem with computers; if any step is missed, the doctor is alerted. The tools are very robust, and we interact with physicians continually to help them succeed.”

Piedmont Hospital’s use of technology to advance patient care has not gone unnoticed. In July 2009, it was named a “Most Wired” hospital for six straight years. No other metro Atlanta hospital made the national list issued by a leading journal of the American Hospital Association.

AN ATLANTA HEART CARE LEADER FOR YEARS

Piedmont Heart Institute is realizing tremendous success, and it is growing ever stronger. In August 2009, three leading Atlanta cardiovascular surgeons joined us, and very soon, internationally renowned surgeons specializing in highly complex procedures will come onboard to launch our heart transplant and valvular surgery programs. These specialists, along with three new vascular surgeons, will provide enhanced and innovative heart treatment to patients throughout the Southeast.

Yet, even before PHI was formed, Piedmont Hospital’s Fuqua Heart Center was already a regional heart care leader. From 2005 to 2008, the latest published year, Piedmont achieved the lowest readmission rate for heart attack patients in greater Atlanta. Today, Piedmont is a recognized leader. For three years, 2008 through 2010, Piedmont was named “Best in Atlanta for Overall Cardiac Care and Cardiac Surgery” by HealthGrades, the nation’s leading independent healthcare ratings company. We also earned HeathGrades’ 2010 distinction “Best in Atlanta for Coronary Intervention.” And we earned the 2009 Cardiac Surgery Excellence Award and the 2010 excellence awards in Cardiac Care and Coronary Intervention, placing our clinical outcomes in the top 10% nationally. 

It is patients, however, who tell our story best: Ask Tom Dix. In 2009, the 50-year-old Peachtree City resident suffered cardiac arrest following an afternoon walk. Two hours later, a CardiacAssist TandemHeart raised his chance of survival from “not likely” to more than 70%. The innovative treatment is credited to an uncanny collaboration between physicians. Dr. Victor Corrigan had opened Dix’s blocked artery with a stent, but Dix remained in cardiac shock. Dr. Vivek Rajagopal proposed the use of a TandemHeart, which he had introduced at Piedmont a year earlier. The teamwork of these two interventionalists saved the patient’s life. Examples of such life-saving measures abound at PHI.

Beyond clinical expertise, Piedmont Healthcare is well known for being exceptionally caring. The current Consumer Reports’ online health report rates Piedmont Hospital No. 1 in Atlanta for patient satisfaction and for doctor and nurse communications with patients. The summer 2009 AARP magazine also ranks Piedmont Hospital first overall in Atlanta.

THE SOUTHEAST’S LEADER IN HEART DISEASE PREVENTION

The goal, of course, is to prevent heart disease from occurring to begin with. Through extensive in-house research, PHI has advanced genetic testing to enable our physicians to detect and slow or even reverse heart disease at its earliest invisible stages. 

In 2008, PHI’s Family Heart Disease Program examined first-degree relatives of people with known heart disease. Family history is an accepted risk factor, but research is limited, and typical screening does not go much further than “Uncle Joe died of a heart attack.”

For each subject, we obtained a three- or four-generational medical history, and we analyzed blood very closely. Findings were grouped into “bad” cholesterol, “good” cholesterol, blood pressure, blood clotting, inflammation and blood sugar. We were able to see which pathway promoted the disease in each person. Risk was also evaluated through CT calcium scoring.

Here’s just one important finding: Of the family members without known heart disease, 21% had plaque build up, some extensive. Based on current guidelines, none of those patients would have qualified for lipid-lowering therapy. Our comprehensive evaluation, however, called for aggressive therapies, appropriate to each patient’s genetic and biomarker results, to slow or even stop progress of the disease in its earliest stages.

 [COO DR. KNOPF:] “From a prevention standpoint, we’re unparalleled in the region. In medical science, heart disease prevention is still rudimentary. It’s the next big frontier, but the clock is ticking. Heart disease accounts for 36% of all deaths, and of the 700,000 Americans who die from it each year, nearly half die suddenly without symptoms.”

[DR. KNOPF (new angle) continued:] “Our goal is to identify heart disease at least 10 years before it’s clinically apparent, and we’re well on the way. New blood marking and imaging techniques let us look at sub-clinical disease early, so we can actually treat it. We have proven that we can shrink and stabilize plaque in arteries to lower the risk of heart attacks as well as strokes.”

ATLANTA NEEDS ACCESS TO THE BEST

Why does Atlanta need a world-class heart center?   

• Because our region has the highest rates of heart disease, stroke, diabetes, obesity –­ and an aging population. 
• Because patients who can, leave the Southeast for heart centers reputed as the nation’s best.
• Because Atlanta is a thriving metropolis – a business, governmental and educational hub that is home to the nation’s third largest concentration of Fortune 500 companies. 
• Because a leading heart center is vital to our quality of life, and it will benefit the region’s economy and attract other leaders.

Without community leadership and philanthropy, however, PHI will never reach its potential. Our operating margins, especially with healthcare reform, cannot pay for top physicians and vital technology, let alone research, innovation and education – the keys to moving from good to great. Yes, we’ll keep improving efficiencies of care and standardizing processes, and we’ll further satisfy patients and employees, all while providing excellent outcomes. But only philanthropic support will propel Piedmont to the forefront of heart care.

Greater Atlanta needs access to the best in medicine. It is time for Piedmont Heart Institute to recruit you. We have already recruited top cardiovascular specialists, and more are on the way. Our patients already receive excellent care … and our quality is escalating. Now we are turning to you, Atlanta’s thought leaders and opinion makers, to invite you to join us in our mission to stand among the nation’s top heart centers – to provide this region with the very best in heart care.