A core tenet of Avera’s mission is to provide quality care to patients and bring that care to their communities. This mission is lived out through outreach programs, one of the more recent examples is cardiac outreach and how the expansion of services is impacting patients and providers in northwest Iowa.
Northwest Iowa has always held a special place in Bernie Attema’s heart, even if that heart has been put through the wringer.
“Most people don't make it through an aortic dissection,” said Attema.
Let alone a second open heart surgery. But after seeing seven different cardiologists in seven years, Bernie found Christopher Stanton, MD, an electrophysiologist with North Central Heart, a division of the Avera Heart Hospital.
“My level of heart repair is beyond anyone's scope at this point. So he's going to monitor it to make sure nothing goes worse than it has,” said Attema.
“In somebody with the problems that he's had, he's at real risk for development of heart failure, which can be progressive. He can end up in and out of the hospital and very sick, but with proper coordinated, regular follow-ups, we can adjust medications and do everything we can to keep him comfortable in living a good life at home,” said Dr. Stanton.
Home being the key word. Patients and stories like Bernie's are the driving force behind expanding cardiac outreach efforts, specifically in the greater Sioux City region.
“It started out with once a week, then twice a week, to build up our services. They wanted to know exactly what our need was and how they could match it. It's been a partnership that's been growing since the beginning,” said Nancy Schenk, MD a family medicine physician at Family Health Care of Siouxland.
“Bernie is not alone. There's a lot of people who need help and aren't receiving it. And we're fortunate to be able to do outreach to different areas so that patients can get the care they need,” said Dr. Stanton.
This means follow-up appointments, diagnostic testing and consultations can be done locally. Now outreach not only helps keep patients closer to their homes, it can help address challenges for the practice as well.
“We have a hard time recruiting a specialty service to our area because of the size of our needs. So it's nice to be able to partner with another group and remain independent and bring cardiology services to this town,” said Dr. Schenk.
“In all areas of the economy and in medicine, competition's a good thing. It makes everybody try to up their game and provide the absolute best option for patients because most patients have a choice. So they want to go to the place that they think delivers the best care, the best way,” said Dr. Stanton.
As for Bernie, he's feeling good that his heart led him to the right place.
“From what I've experienced with Avera, it's been a much higher level of quality. It's going to be a great asset, I think, to people in Siouxland,” said Attema.
Learn more about heart and vascular care at Avera
