Half of Olathe Medical Center's cardiologists leave for HCA Midwest facilities

Hospital group HCA Midwest Health announced this week it has hired seven cardiologists from Olathe Health System.

The personnel move expands HCA Midwest’s presence in southern Johnson County and temporarily cuts in half Olathe Health’s stable of cardiologists.

“Clearly it’s an expansion of services and allows us to expand from a location standpoint” too, HCA Midwest spokeswoman Christine Hamele said. “The Olathe market is a new offering for us.”

The seven doctors will practice primarily at Menorah Medical Center and Overland Park Regional Medical Center near Olathe. They’ve been added to the 32 cardiologists who already practice with the Midwest Heart and Vascular Specialists group at nine HCA Midwest facilities in the Kansas City area.

One of the seven, Dr. Thomas Baldwin, said he and his colleagues were drawn in by the opportunity to join a larger health group that offers more cardiovascular surgery options, including transcatheter heart valve replacements.

“We were attracted by and look forward to working with what we believe to be a great group of cardiologists in a system that’s very forward-looking,” Baldwin said.

Olathe Health is a two-hospital, nonprofit system with 38 clinics anchored by 300-bed Olathe Medical Center. HCA Midwest is a for-profit system with 12 locations, including eight hospitals, throughout the Kansas City area.

The other cardiologists moving to HCA Midwest are Dr. Punit Goel, Brian Friedman, Dr. Van Jones, Dr. James Marcum, Dr. Rangarao Tummala and Dr. Andrea Yang.

Baldwin said they didn’t coordinate their moves.

“We value our time we spent at Olathe Medical Center and we still have many friends and colleagues there, and we continue to wish them well,” Baldwin said. “This opportunity arose, and we individually had the opportunity to consider it. Each individual made an independent decision to move to HCA and partner with HCA.”

Olathe Health spokesman Mike Jensen said the system is moving quickly to hire replacements.

“We are successfully recruiting cardiologists from many of the top programs in the country,” Jensen said. “We are very excited about the future of our cardiovascular program and the expansion of services we’ll be able to offer our patients.”

Jensen also provided a letter that Olathe Health sent to patients explaining the change.

It says Olathe Health’s cardiology and cardiothoracic surgery team still includes seven doctors, eight advanced-practice registered nurses and two registered nurses.

“If you have seen one of the physicians who is leaving, we have ensured a seamless continuity of care by transferring your medical record to the group listed below,” the letter states.

Baldwin said patients are also free to follow him and other doctors to the HCA Midwest system.

“We will be available for those patients that would like to see us and follow up,” Baldwin said.

This story was originally published July 18, 2017 at 4:27 PM with the headline "Half of Olathe Medical Center's cardiologists leave for HCA Midwest facilities."