CINCINNATI, Ohio — A private heart surgical practice has joined the health-care collaborative UC Health and one of the practice’s surgeons named chief of the cardiac surgery division at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine.
Cardiac, Vascular and Thoracic Surgeons, also known as CVTS, joins the collaborative formalized one month ago between the university, Cincinnati’s University Hospital and the University of Cincinnati Physicians. The partnership thinks it will be able to provide better health care in the Cincinnati area and draw patients who would have left the region for specialized care.
“Neither group wanted to compete in this market alone,” Dr. Michael Edwards, chairman of the university’s Department of Surgery, stated in a press release. “This is truly a benefit to patients who may have gone to Cleveland or Chicago to receive cardiac surgery services in the past. This opportunity will aid in the creation of a new, standardized model for cardiac care—from clinical visits to the operating table.”
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As part of the partnership, CVTS Dr. J. Michael Smith, who specializes in robot-assisted cardiac surgery, is the new chief of the medical school’s cardiac surgery division.
The collaboration will add new procedures to the UC Health repertoire — such as minimally invasive direct coronary artery bypass grafts — while CVTS will get access to the university’s advanced technology and support services, according to the release.
UC Health was formed to provide a little more direction and a formal title for a collaboration that’s already going on between the university, the hospital and the physicians group. It also helped amid changes at the Health Alliance of Greater Cincinnati, which began losing members last year and will continue to dissolve in the coming months.
Combined, the three organizations have more than 650 physicians, a 650-bed hospital, 20 area clinical locations and a campus in suburban West Chester. CVTS has a staff of 14 physicians.
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