Transcription:
Pediatric Heart Care in Ashland, Kentucky

Another informational resource from UK Healthcare. This is UK HealthCast, featuring conversations with our physicians and other healthcare providers.

Prakash Chandran: Welcome to UK HealthCast from the University of Kentucky HealthCare. I'm your host, Prakash Chandran. Today, we'll be discussing a partnership that is bringing pediatric heart care to Ashland, Kentucky. Joining us to discuss is Dr. Majd Makhoul, Director of the Fetal Cardiovascular Program at Kentucky Children's Hospital; and Dr. Joshua Hayman, a pediatric cardiologist at Kentucky Children's Hospital.

Now, Dr. Makhoul and Dr. Hayman, it's a pleasure to have you both here today. We know that Kentucky Children's Hospital is partnering with King's Daughters Medical Center in Ashland to bring nationally ranked pediatric heart care to Ashland. Dr. Hayman, I wanted to start with you. Can you talk a little bit more about why this relationship is so important?

Dr. Joshua Hayman: Sure. So, as part of our mission as part of Kentucky Children's Hospital is to provide world-class healthcare to as many children within the Commonwealth as we can. And by kind of increasing our presence in Eastern Kentucky, we hope to bring again that kind of nationally ranked world quality healthcare to children in Eastern Kentucky, including areas like Ashland and the surrounding tri-state area up there.

Prakash Chandran: So Dr. Makhoul, I wanted to shift over to you. One of the things that I've read is that Kentucky Children's Hospital is ranked as the 15th best hospital in the nation for pediatric cardiology and heart surgery. And it's the second best children's hospital in Kentucky. What does this nationally ranked care mean for the childrens and families of Kentucky, specifically to those at Ashland who can now have access closer to home?

Dr. Mahjd Makhoul: Yeah. Prakash, thank you so much for this very good question. As you mentioned, we've been partnering with Cincinnati Children's Hospital for the last several years. And the US news organization has recognized our excellent partnership where we combine our expertise in all the subspecialties of pediatric cardiology and ranked us, as you said, number 15 in the nation.

So we all know some of our families in the Commonwealth have some difficulties getting to the tertiary care centers in Lexington where the UK HealthCare is located. But now with our team being physically in Ashland once a week, every month, and on top of that available 24 hours, seven days a week as a consulting service for all the providers in the area, we can easily provide this high class and top ranked patient care to those families without them having to, you know, worry about the burden of travel and the commute.

Prakash Chandran: So Dr. Hayman, I'd love to shift over to you. What services can people expect out of this location?

Dr. Joshua Hayman: Sure. So we offer a variety of services, all relating to pediatric cardiology. We basically specialize in the diagnosis and treatment of congenital and acquired heart disease in pediatric patients. So specifically, that can range from structural problems, functional problems or electrical. So we offer a variety of services, including we perform echocardiograms, which are ultrasounds of the heart, where we can examine a child's hearts structure and function. We offer and perform EKGs, which is a test we use to look at the electrical system within the heart and can diagnose certain types of arrhythmias.

And additionally, we also have variety of services and support that we get through other sub-specialists back in Lexington including other subspecialties like electrophysiology or dealing with heart arrhythmias as well as interventional and surgical cardiology where we can correct kind of congenital and structural problems within the heart. Dr. Makhoul also specializes in fetal cardiology that is the diagnosis and management of congenital heart disease even before a child's born. And that's one of the services we'll be offering out in Ashland as well.

Dr. Mahjd Makhoul: Yeah. Thanks, Dr. Hayman. If I may add, Prakash, I think this covers the services we're providing. In regards to my area of expertise, which is the fetal echocardiogram or the ultrasound of the baby's heart before the baby is born. We actually partner with a very successful OB practice over in Ashland as well as our own UK high-risk OB team called the maternal-fetal medicine team who provide also telemedicine counsel for those patients.

So with that collaboration, we can diagnose the majority of the heart defects in those babies before they're born as Dr. Hayman was alluding to. And that's usually a very unique service in the tertiary pediatric hospitals like UK, for example. But with the advanced technology, you know, the telemedicine, the digital connections, all those advanced technologies help us actually offer this type of service for patients without them having to worry about traveling or being away from home.

Prakash Chandran: Yeah, that sounds amazing. And Dr. Makhoul, staying with you for a minute, what will happen if patients need additional testing or surgeries?

Dr. Mahjd Makhoul: Yeah. So obviously, the goal here, we want to provide the best service possible for the patients without them having to travel. But occasionally, we make diagnoses that either require further evaluation, like Dr. Hayman mentioned, the studies done in the cath lab including either diagnostic or interventional procedures. Those are occasionally needed to help kind of complete the picture if you will, and make the best decision for those patients and occasionally, also intervene and fix some of those problems without having to do any surgeries. So that's something that we often have to bring the patient over to Lexington for completing those kinds of services in pediatric patients.

The other possibility is if the patient requires heart surgery, either on urgent or non-urgent basis. So the patients will be transferred over to the hospital for the urgent ones and will be arranged to come as an outpatient for the non-urgent heart surgeries, which can be completed here in Lexington for those patients.

Prakash Chandran: Dr Hayman, are there any resources that you're excited about having access to as a result of this partnership?

Dr. Joshua Hayman: Sure. I mean, it's always nice to have a new population of patients to be able to work with. We're very excited about the facilities we have offered at King's Daughters where we have a full clinic with seven or eight exam rooms. We're able to provide full echocardiographic services like we would in Lexington as well as EKGs. So basically, it's not any different than being away from Lexington. But we can provide that care closer to our patients' homes and hopefully make it a little bit easier on them to get around and get around to see us.

Dr. Mahjd Makhoul: Yeah. And if I may add as well, we besides having us getting access to the facility there, which is very helpful as Dr. Hayman mentioned, we also appreciate the expertise that are present locally. So we do use the echo lab in King's Daughter where the sonographers can do elective echocardiograms on pediatric patients under our supervision. So we provide education. We provide ongoing feedback as well as same-day reporting for those studies, so the providers who order those tests can make decisions in timely fashion for those patients.

Prakash Chandran: And Dr. Makhoul, just sticking with you for a minute. I'm sure the audience might be interested in learning how this partnership came to be. So can you provide any insight around that?

Dr. Mahjd Makhoul: Yeah, absolutely. So, I've been at University of Kentucky now for a little over eight years. When I first came here, we were at a kind of a decision point, if you will. We wanted to provide the best care we can for the patients of the Commonwealth. And we were looking for partnership where we can complement the expertise that we have and continue to grow the program here.

And when we looked around us, we couldn't find any better partners than Cincinnati Children's which are very well-known with the excellent history of providing excellent care in the domain that we're all involved in, which is the pediatric cardiology. So we've got engaged with them in a very in-depth discussion for several months and took about a year or so to come up with the theme of our partnership, which is called One Program Two Sites.

So to elaborate a little bit more on that, basically the vision and what we've been doing for this partnership is that no matter where the patient is on which campus, UK versus Cincinnati, they will get the excellent care, same excellent care in all the domains. And the mutual decision-making process is very deep and well-planned. So for example, if a patient requires an intervention, either a heart surgery or interventional cath or something like that, teams from both sides will be discussing that specific patient regardless where that patient is being seen. And the decision will be made mutually with all the experts in the room and all the kind of the brains thinking together, if you will, with one goal in mind, which is what's the best option for that patient. So we can provide them with the best care.

Prakash Chandran: Yeah, that sounds amazing. So, Dr. Hayman, is there anything else before we close here today that you'd like to highlight about this new partnership or the services that are being offered in this location?

Dr. Joshua Hayman: No, I mean, I think as Dr. Makhoul pointed, one of the nice things about our presence there is even when we're not physically there, we're still able to communicate with those patients there like as Dr. Makhoul was saying, using the echo lab there. We can perform echos. Even though one of us is not physically there. We can still supervise it remotely from Lexington and have results for patients the same day. And we're able to do consults with local physicians, either through the phone and through services and kind of provide our expertise that way. So even when we're not physically there, we're still an available resource. But then, we should be there at least once a week in person to help out with those services as well.

Prakash Chandran: And Dr. Makhoul, what about you? Any closing thoughts?

Dr. Mahjd Makhoul: No, I think we're very excited about this partnership. We have a very good representation in the majority of the eastern and southeastern side of the state, if you will. And we're excited to expand our services to the patients in the Ashland area. And we appreciate the opportunity that partnership with a King's Daughter system is offering us so we can be there for those patients and families when they need us and bring them best care in our domain that we can.

Prakash Chandran: Well, Dr. Hayman, Dr. Makhoul, thank you so much for your time.

Dr. Mahjd Makhoul: Thank you.

Dr. Joshua Hayman: Thank you.

Prakash Chandran: And that wraps up another episode of UK HealthCast with the University of Kentucky HealthCare. Why is it important for UK HealthCare to offer an array of pediatric services? Visit our website to find out at ukhealthcare.uky.edu and search pediatric services. If you found this podcast helpful, please share it on your social channels and be sure to check out the entire podcast library for topics of interest to you.

Thanks for checking out this episode of UK HealthCast with the University of Kentucky HealthCare. My name is Prakash Chandran, and we'll talk next time.