Baptist Health Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute to Open Innovative Cardiovascular Care Office

With a focus on enhancing the patient experience and streamlining cardiovascular care, Baptist Health Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute will open a multidisciplinary office this summer.

The sixth floor of the west tower of the Baptist Medical Arts Building on the Baptist Hospital campus has been converted into a 13,000-square-foot office with 30 exam rooms to house 14 cardiovascular specialists. Cardiologists, cardiothoracic surgeons, interventional cardiologists and electrophysiologists will be sharing the space, along with 18 advanced practice providers, including both nurse practitioners and physician assistants.

Jonathan Fialkow, M.D., chief population health officer for Baptist Health and chief of cardiology at Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute.

“This is the first office that we’ve built from the ground up, with a focus on patients’ needs and their desire for convenience,” said Jonathan Fialkow, M.D., chief of cardiology at Baptist Hospital and deputy medical director of Baptist Health Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute, who envisioned this comprehensive care concept. “By bringing each of these specialties together, along with clinical pharmacists, nurse navigators and administrative staff, patients will experience service that is unmatched elsewhere.”

Dr. Fialkow says that having multiple specialists in one location eliminates the need for patients to go to different offices, which often delays care. In fact, he says that it typically can take patients who need a valve replacement up to 80 days to wind their way through the specialists who need to see them before their procedure is planned.

“In the model we’ve established, our goal is to knock that timeframe down to less than 30 days,” he said.

Many of the delays typically experienced by patients result from appointment availability, scheduling of tests, receipt of authorizations and communication between physicians. With everyone under the same roof, Dr. Fialkow says, coordination of care and collaboration among providers will happen organically.

“If a patient visits one of the cardiologists with a leaking heart valve,” he said, “a consultation with an interventional cardiologist and a heart surgeon can be arranged in the same office, so the patient doesn’t require three separate appointments.”

“It’s standard practice to have both an interventional cardiologist and a cardiothoracic surgeon in the procedure room during a valve replacement,” said Joseph McGinn, M.D., chief of cardiac surgery at Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute. “We’ve designed this practice to allow the patient to meet both specialists together during an office visit.”

Behind-the-scenes collaboration is advantageous to patients as well, Dr. Fialkow notes. “With all of us within one office, talking to our colleagues about the best treatment options for a certain patient becomes common and frequent,” he said.

This structure also benefits patients whose conditions are best monitored over time. “If any of us notices a change in the patient’s condition, intervention can happen swiftly,” he said.

Specialists from Baptist Health Medical Cardiology | Kendall, located at 7400 SW 87 Avenue, Suite 100, will move to the new location when it opens.

Even with the new office not yet open, plans are already in place to bring dietitians and exercise physiologists into the space to provide additional services to patients who need them. And Dr. Fialkow says this model will be replicated throughout Baptist Health.

“We see real advantages to this care model,” he said. “This office, and others on the horizon in the future, will set the standard for continuity of care for cardiovascular disease management. We’ll take the burden off patients, enhance their experience and better manage them through collaboration. As Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute is known for, our innovative approach to cardiovascular care at the clinic level stands to pave the way for the future.”