“If you think this relationship is uncommon ”” you”™re absolutely right.”
So says Dr. Michael Argenziano, chief of adult cardiac surgery at Columbia University, about the years-long, ever-expanding association between the Ivy League school and Stamford Health.
In that partnership”™s latest chapter, Stamford”™s Heart & Vascular Institute is offering treatment and expertise from the Columbia University Irving Medical Center”™s staff of heart surgeons; specifically, five of those surgeons will see patients and perform operations at Stamford Hospital.
Stamford Health has collaborated for nearly a decade with Columbia”™s Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons as a teaching affiliate, explained Dr. Michael Coady, chief of Cardiac Surgery and co-director of the Heart & Vascular Institute.
“Columbia was who actually screened me and hired me as chief” in 2010, Coady noted. “They”™ve long been involved in the oversight of our programs from a quality standpoint as a teaching affiliate. As the programs grew, there was an opportunity to partner with Columbia in more inventive ways.
“It allows those surgeons to be present here seven days a week,” he continued. “Dr. Argenziano is here on Mondays and the others are scheduled throughout the week.”
Argenziano noted that he and the four other Columbia surgeons aren”™t “only” cardiac specialists but are leaders in each of their areas. Dr. Isaac George is surgical director of the Heart Valve Center at Columbia and surgical director, Structural Heart Disease at NewYork-Presbyterian; Dr. Yuji Kaku is a specialist in thoracic and cardiac surgery; Dr. Hiroo Takayama, director of the school”™s Cardiovascular Institute; and Dr. Koji Takeda, director of its pulmonary thromboendartectomy program.
Coady said one advantage for Fairfield County patients is obvious. “These are patients who would otherwise seek surgery in New York City,” he said. “Now they can have an operation closer to their own community, where they reside.”
That proximity will also eliminate the need for further trips into New York for follow-up evaluations and procedures, he added.
Not only that, Argenziano said, “but over the last couple of years especially, there have been newer techniques becoming available, including advancements in robotic heart surgery. We consider Stamford Hospital to be one of our closest affiliates ”” we”™re very like-minded ”” and this is a way for us to help further with oversight and advice.
“It really became a natural part of our discussion,” he continued. “The thinking was, ”˜Why not deliver some of these same services here at Stamford Hospital?”™ As it is, they get some of the best results in the country.”
Indeed, in August Stamford was recognized as a High Performing Hospital by “U.S. News & World Report” in four areas: chronic lung disease, heart failure, kidney failure, and stroke care.
And in October its Heart & Vascular Institute received a pair of gold achievement awards from the American Heart Association, and another from the American Stroke Association, for its treatment and care of such patients.
“Not too many hospitals in the area can function at the level that Stamford is,” Argenziano said.
The latest expansion will help Columbia “further disseminate some of the techniques and technologies that would otherwise only be available in certain centers,” he added.
Argenziano said Columbia too will benefit from the expansion of the partnership. “We can only take care of so many patients” onsite, he said. “Now we”™ll be working shoulder-to-shoulder introducing these various techniques and helping all of these surgeons be able to perform these kinds of operations anywhere in the world.”
And that hands-on experience will not be limited to surgeons, Argenziano added. “Nurses, radiologists, other technicians ”” everybody will be gotten on board.”
“We”™re basically bringing the mountain to Mohammad,” he quipped.
The net result, both practitioners agreed, will be more efficient care, quicker recovery times, fewer return trips to the hospital, and ultimately more lives saved.
Coady noted that in addition to Columbia, Stamford Health maintains professional relationships with Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) Orthopedics at Stamford Health and the Carl & Dorothy Bennett Cancer Center”™s collaborative partnership with Dana-Farber Brigham Cancer Center.
