10 Years of the Gill Affiliate Network: Mercy Health — Lourdes Hospital
The Gill Heart & Vascular Institute Affiliate Network launched in 2014 to better connect community hospitals across the Commonwealth with the expertise and resources available at UK HealthCare. Throughout 2024, UK HealthCare is highlighting achievements by the 23 members of the Gill Affiliate Network (GAN) as part of the network’s 10th anniversary celebration.
Mercy Health — Lourdes Hospital became GAN’s 18th member on October 1, 2020. The Paducah-based facility serves as a regional referral center for a wide geographic region, including more than a dozen counties in western Kentucky, southern Illinois, southeast Missouri and northwest Tennessee.
What are key aspects of your cardiovascular program that people should know about?
Our cardiovascular program includes diagnostic and interventional cardiology, cardiothoracic surgery, vascular surgery and electrophysiology. Fortune/PINC AI named Lourdes a Top 5 community hospital for cardiovascular care in February 2024. At Mercy Health — Lourdes Hospital, cardiology and cardiac surgery cases are reviewed routinely to ensure appropriate and safe care.
Mercy Health — Lourdes Hospital offers state-of-the-art procedures such as robotic cardiothoracic surgery and atrial fibrillation ablation.
How has being a part of the Gill Affiliate Network influenced how you care for those in your community?
Mercy Health – Lourdes Hospital’s experience with GAN has been outstanding. We enjoy the collaboration and access to all the information GAN provides. The team we work with is excellent and their knowledge and passion exceeds all expectations.
Process improvements have been made with assistance from GAN. These improvements include developing documents to support our cardiovascular program, improving processes that improve care and metric outcomes, and enhancing access to educational material.
GAN has provided information to our physicians and nurse practitioners that has helped them understand the importance of quality metrics that are reported. GAN has supplied clear documentation examples to accurately capture the care being delivered, supporting improvements in cardiovascular quality metrics .
The quality of care has always been excellent from our cardiovascular team and physicians. GAN has brought attention to some areas we can focus on to provide even better care. A couple of examples include assistance with Chest Pain Accreditation, STEMI initiatives and high sensitivity troponin protocol. This has enhanced our ability to recognize cardiac issues earlier, resulting in early heart attack care and prevention of irreversible damage.
What is Lourdes’ cardiovascular program most looking forward to? What does your hospital hope to achieve through its relationship with the GAN over the next month or years?
Our goal is to be a five-star program, an accredited chest pain center, grow our electrophysiology and structural heart programs, and enhance our physician recruitment and retention.
