A heart specialist will make a weekly stop at Kona Community Hospital to provide cardiac care to West Hawaii patients. A heart specialist will make a weekly stop at Kona Community Hospital to provide cardiac care to West Hawaii patients.
A heart specialist will make a weekly stop at Kona Community Hospital to provide cardiac care to West Hawaii patients.
Dr. Andrew Rosenblum, a cardiologist based at Maui Heart and Vascular Health at Maui Memorial Medical Center, will initially staff the hospital’s new Kona Cardiology Clinic to provide on-site comprehensive and noninvasive services. The cardiologist will travel from Maui to Kona each Wednesday to see patients who have a referral for care.
“This will help bring a much-needed cardiologist to Kona,” said Kona Community Hospital Medical Director Kathleen Rokavec. “Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the U.S., so, we absolutely need this in our community.”
Currently, Kona has just one cardiologist, who is not privileged to work within the hospital, she said. The hospital hadn’t had a heart specialist prior, which forced patients to travel off-island for cardiac care.
The new cardiac clinic is a partnership between Kona Community Hospital and Maui Heart and Vascular Health at Maui Memorial Medical Center, Rokavec said. It will be housed in the hospital’s Radiology Imaging Center.
Because both hospitals fall under the auspices of the Hawaii Health Systems Corporation, an employee like Rosenblum is able to travel to provide care at affiliated hospitals around the state, said Melody Sulliban, West Hawaii region director of imaging. She was unable to provide more information on the cost for the clinic as of press time on Wednesday.
With the clinic the hospital will be able to better provide patients with basic cardiology services, such as diagnostics, in West Hawaii, she said. If further care is needed, beyond the clinic’s outpatient services, a patient will be referred to heart specialists on Maui or Oahu.
Though Rosenblum is initially scheduled for one day a week in Kona, Sulliban alluded that if the need is found, an additional day could be added. Plans are also in the works to provide inpatient cardiology services at Kona Community Hospital.
The hospital also expects to have cardiothoracic surgeon Dr. Michael Dang provide outpatient services one-day-a-week by the end of April, she said. Dang would most likely provide noninvasive outpatient services in Kona on Saturdays, she said.
For more information, call the new clinic at 322-4542.
