Physician poised to see new patients at South 31 Family Care

INDIANAPOLIS – John D. Baldea, M.D., a member of St. Francis Medical Group, will establish a practice at South 31 Family Care effective Aug. 3.

Baldea, who specializes in family and sports medicine, comes to the new position from Colorado, where he served as team physician at the University of Colorado and University of Denver. Previously, he was employed by U.S. Healthworks Urgent Care Center and Southway Urgent Care Center in Colorado.

A graduate of the Indiana University School of Medicine, Baldea completed family residency training at Ball Memorial Hospital in Muncie and a sports medicine fellowship at the University of Colorado.

He holds memberships in the American Medical Association, American Academy of Family Physicians, American Medical Society for Sports Medicine, American College of Sports Medicine and the Indiana Academy of Family Physicians.

Baldea joins Matthew Wolf, M.D., W. Joseph Johnston, M.D., and Lisa Altuglu, M.D., at the newly opened Southport Family Care center, located U.S. 31 and Southport Road. Wolf and Johnston previously were associated with St. Francis’ Center Grove Family Medicine.

To schedule an appointment with Baldea at South 31 Family Care, call 317-781-7370.

Indiana Heart Physicians joins forces with St. Francis Hospital

INDIANAPOLIS – The Indiana Heart Physicians, a leading internationally recognized cardiology practice, will integrate its services with St. Francis Hospital & Health Centers, effective Aug. 3, 2009.

Thirty years of industry-leading cardiac care to the residents of south central Indiana has taken a major step forward with the integration of Indiana Heart Physicians and St. Francis Hospital & Health Centers. This integration harnesses the expertise of both organizations and their ability to offer a wider range of cardiac and vascular services to patients in central Indiana.

“The health-care industry has clearly established the need to better manage our scarce resources and to do so with a continued focus on our customers overall health. This can only be achieved by collaborating across the entire care continuum and avoiding all unnecessary costs not associated with patient care,” said Keith Jewell, St. Francis senior vice president and chief operating officer.

“Fully integrating our organizations enables St. Francis and Indiana Heart Physicians to continue the high quality service customers have come to expect while also investing resources in applying the science and research that is transforming the delivery of cardiac care,” added Robert J. Brody, St. Francis president and chief executive officer.

IHP currently has 23 board-certified physicians specialized in the areas of electrophysiology, echocardiography, nuclear cardiology and interventional cardiology. They are supported by nearly 150 physician assistants, nurses, medical technology staff and support personnel.

“Indiana Heart Physicians has proudly served the south-central Indiana community for over 30 years and being fully integrated with St. Francis will only strengthen our ability to continue to provide the best possible cardiovascular care to the patients we serve,” said Jeff Christie, Indiana Heart Physicians’ managing partner.

IHP was established in 1978 under the direction of H.O. “Buzz” Hickman, M.D. In addition to its long-established relationship with St. Francis, IHP also has affiliations with Morgan Hospital and Medical Center in Martinsville and Major Hospital in Shelbyville.

Last year, nearly 70,000 patients were seen at IHP, including office visits, testing and procedures.

IHP physicians conduct most of their work at the St. Francis Heart Center, located on the Indianapolis hospital’s south campus at Emerson Avenue and Stop 11. The center is the home to the city’s first certified Chest Pain Evaluation Center, Midwest Heart Valve Center, vascular laboratory, and a national training site for catheterization lab procedures, carotid stent placement and endovascular repair.

IHP physicians also developed the landmark Emergency Heart Attack Response Team at the Heart Center, which significantly reduces response times for heart attack patients, improves their outcomes and reduces health care costs. The EHART protocol has received much acclaim in the medical world and has been adopted by hospitals throughout the world.

The hospital/physician integration is seemingly timely and reflects a part of the health care reform proposals being discussed nationally, St. Francis and IHP officials say.

To learn more about the Indiana Heart Physicians, go to www.ihpmd.org. More information about St. Francis Hospital & Health Centers is at www.stfrancishospitals.org.

Mooresville surgeon explains orthopaedic, joint replacement therapies Aug. 19

EFFINGHAM, Ill. – Hip and knee pain shouldn’t keep people from leading active and rewarding lives – and St. Francis Hospital & Health Centers wants to show you how.

The St. Francis “Road Show” will be coming to town at 6:30 p.m., Wednesday, Aug. 19, at the Keller Convention Center at the Hilton Garden Inn, 1202 N. Keller Drive. In the spotlight is a hip and knee replacement seminar.

E. Michael Keating, M.D., will explain the latest procedures in joint replacement and arthritis treatments. He is a board-certified orthopaedic surgeon specializing in adult reconstructive surgery and joint replacement.

Keating is a surgeon with Joint Replacement Surgeons of Indiana, a practice group whose Center for Hip & Knee Surgery is affiliated with the St. Francis Hospital-Mooresville, Ind.

The Center has been ranked No. 1 in Indiana for joint surgery three years in a row by HealthGrades, one of the nation’s premier health-care rating companies. It also is ranked among the to 5 percent in the nation.

To register for this seminar, call St. Francis toll-free at 1-877-888-1777.

More information about the Center for Hip & Knee Surgery is at www.stfrancishospitals.org/Ortho/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabid=23.

St. Francis physician establishes new practice at South 31 Family Care

INDIANAPOLIS – Lisa Altuglu, M.D., a member of St. Francis Medical Group, has joined South 31 Family Care effective Aug. 3.

Board-certified in internal medicine and pediatrics, Altuglu previously was a partner in Pioneer Physicians Network, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. She has held academic appointments at Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine, Summa Health Systems, Akron General Medical Center and Children’s Hospital Medical Center in Akron.

She completed residencies in internal medicine and pediatrics at Akron General Medical Center and Children’s Hospital Medical Center. She earned her medical degree from Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine.

Altuglu received various academic accolades as an undergraduate and as a medical student. She is a member of the Ohio State Medical Association.

She joins Matthew Wolf, M.D., W. Joseph Johnston, M.D., and John Baldea, M.D., at the newly opened South 31Family Care center, located U.S. 31 and Southport Road. Wolf and Johnston previously were associated with St. Francis’ Center Grove Family Medicine.

To schedule an appointment with Altuglu at South 31 Family Care, call 317-781-7370.

St. Francis has state’s lowest heart attack, pneumonia death rates; well below national average

INDIANAPOLIS – St. Francis Hospital & Health Centers has the lowest heart attack and pneumonia death rates among Indiana hospitals and has a heart attack ranking of 19th – the top 1 percent nationally -- according to a report released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

The CMS findings, which were published in a recent USA Today article, are based on more than 1 million deaths and readmissions among Medicare patients from 2005 to 2008. More than 4,600 hospitals across the nation were analyzed for their heart attack, heart failure and pneumonia death rates.

The heart attack death rate at St. Francis Hospital-Indianapolis is 12.3 percent, the lowest of any Indiana hospital – and significantly less than the 16.6 percent national 30-day average.

The pneumonia death rate at St. Francis-Indianapolis and St. Francis Hospital-Beech Grove is 7.8 percent (the lowest in Indiana) and 9.7 percent, respectively. Both rates are considerably below the national 30-day rate of 11.5 percent.

St. Francis also had the lowest readmission rates for pneumonia patients in Marion County.

Heart failure death rates at both St. Francis hospitals were less than or no different from the national 11.1 percent rate, according to the CMS study.

““We are continually looking at ways to improve our performance to better serve our patients at all of our hospitals,” said Robert J. Brody, St. Francis president and chief executive officer. “Certainly, the CMS study attests to our commitment to our goals and our overarching health-care ministry.”

The CMS report comes in the wake of St. Francis’ earning national recognition for implementing the American Heart Association’s/American Stroke Association’s programs to treat coronary artery disease, stroke and heart failure.

St. Francis received the Get With The Guidelines-Heart Failure Bronze Performance Achievement. The recognition also means that St. Francis attained an aggressive goal of treating patients for at least 90 days with 85 percent compliance to the core standard levels outlined by the AHA and American College of Cardiology secondary prevention guidelines for heart failure patients.

Previously St. Francis received both the bronze and silver awards for its achievements in the area of coronary artery disease and will receive the Gold Award later this month (acute myocardial infarction) from the AHA.

To see how St. Francis performed and to compare with other local and state hospitals, go to www.usatoday.com/news/health/2009-07-09-hospital-deaths_N.htm<.