Temple University Hospital and Guthrie are announcing an affiliation for heart transplant and advanced heart failure services that will provide patients living in north central Pennsylvania and Upstate New York streamlined access to Temple’s heart transplant and advanced heart failure specialists. This will allow Guthrie to expand its heart failure services through an affiliation with the Temple Advanced Heart Failure Program and offers greater coordination and management of patients with advanced heart failure, particularly those in need of mechanical circulatory support or transplantation.
Through Guthrie’s Heart Failure Program, patients living in north central Pennsylvania and Upstate New York will see local Guthrie specialists and receive most pre and post-operative care close to home at Guthrie. Patients in need of advanced services, including a ventricular assist device (VAD) or a transplant, will be referred to Temple for their procedure. Upon discharge from Temple, post-surgical VAD or transplant care will be coordinated between Guthrie and Temple specialists. Guthrie heart failure team members will be interacting routinely with Temple specialists.
“We are pleased to announce this unique affiliation with Guthrie, which offers a unified approach to the care of heart failure patients with defined patient pathways between Guthrie and Temple,” said Michael Young, MHA, FACHE, President and CEO of Temple University Hospital. “It’s a win-win for patients, who will have access to Temple’s Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Program, one of the most experienced in the world. The Temple Heart Transplant Program is the fastest “list-to-transplant” site in the U.S. and has the best 1-year survival in the region, and its advanced heart failure specialists and cardiovascular surgeons can offer the most advanced mechanical circulatory support solutions available.”
Daniel Sporn, MD, FACC, MHA, Guthrie’s Chief of Cardiovascular Services said, “The Guthrie Cardiovascular Team enthusiastically welcomes Temple as a partner in rendering excellent, patient-centered care to those we serve. We take pride in providing our community with immediate access to the health care they need, utilizing cutting-edge technologies in a compassionate, hands-on environment.”
Temple’s transplant program has performed well over 1,000 transplants and its transplant surgeons are highly experienced in performing complex dual organ transplants (heart-lung, heart-kidney, heart-liver, heart-kidney-pancreas). Temple is also home to a robust research program that is pioneering methods to make donor organs more available and avoid post-transplant complications.
The Guthrie Cardiac and Vascular Center is a nationally recognized program with 14 locations in Pennsylvania and New York. Guthrie was named one of the nation’s Top 50 Cardiovascular Hospitals for 2020 by IBM Watson HealthTM, based on a balanced scorecard of publicly available clinical, operational and patient satisfaction metrics and data. This is the 11th time Guthrie has been honored with this distinguished award. The Guthrie Heart Failure Program is a team of physicians and advanced practice providers dedicated to the treatment of heart failure patients.