HealthEast, HealthPartners Collaboration Creates Largest Cardio-Thoracic Surgery Program in the Twin Cities

ST. PAUL, MN--(Marketwired - Jun 11, 2013) - A partnership between cardiovascular-thoracic surgeons at HealthPartners Regions Hospital and HealthEast's St. Joseph's Hospital will serve 800 to 900 patients at both health systems a year. Timothy Kroshus, MD, a HealthPartners surgeon at Regions Hospital will serve as director of the East Metro Cardiovascular-Thoracic Surgery program. The program also includes David Blake, MD, and Rochus Voeller, MD, HealthPartners surgeons at Regions Hospital and David Joyce, MD, a HealthEast surgeon at St. Joseph's Hospital.

"This collaboration will allow us to offer more specialized cardiovascular thoracic services for our patients. This will improve coordination of care and it eliminates duplication of services in our region which helps to lower the cost of health care," said Timothy Kroshus, MD, HealthPartners surgeon and director of the East Metro Cardiovascular-Thoracic Surgery program.

"Heart surgery is a team sport, and this opportunity will allow us to combine our expertise in a way that will serve our patients well moving forward," said David Joyce, MD, HealthEast cardiovascular surgeon and main surgeon for the East Metro Cardiovascular-Thoracic program at St. Joseph's Hospital.

Regions and St. Joseph's hospitals are ranked among the top heart centers in the Twin Cities. Regions Hospital Heart Center and HealthEast Heart Care Center at St. Joseph's Hospital have been awarded some of the nation's most prestigious honors by independent organizations that measure and rank health care, including HealthGrades, Thomson Reuters and Truven Health Analytics. Last year, Regions Hospital was among the first in the nation to begin performing transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR), a less invasive procedure to replace diseased heart valves. 

"We are very confident that our collaboration will provide a long term stable platform that will allow us to highlight the exceptional skills of our cardio-thoracic surgeons," said Thomas Johnson, MD, Medical Director, HealthEast Heart Care. 

For more information or to schedule an appointment visit www.healthpartners.com and www.healtheast.org or call HealthPartners' Cardiac Surgical Services at 651-254-4130 or HealthEast Cardiac Surgical Services at 651-232-4500.

Regions Hospital
Regions Hospital is a Level I Trauma Center for adults and for children serving Minnesota and western Wisconsin for more than 140 years. A private, nonprofit, teaching hospital, Regions (www.regionshospital.com) provides outstanding care in women's health, heart, cancer, surgery, orthopaedics, neuroscience, burn, emergency care, mental illnesses and more. Regions is part of the HealthPartners (www.healthpartners.com) family of health care companies that serves 1.4 million medical and dental health plan members nationwide. Follow Regions Hospital at twitter.com/RegionsHospital and www.facebook.com/home.php?#/regionshospital.

HealthEast Care System
HealthEast Care System is a community-focused, non-profit health care organization that provides innovative technology, compassionate care and a full spectrum of family health services. HealthEast includes Bethesda Hospital, St. John's Hospital, St. Joseph's Hospital, and Woodwinds Health Campus as well as outpatient services, clinics, home care and medical transportation services. Practicing financial responsibility, HealthEast is the largest, locally-owned health care organization in the Twin Cities' East Metro with 7,300 employees, 1,200 volunteers and 1,400 physicians on staff.