Regional Heart Center Open

By Craig Degginger
HS News and Community Relations

Dr. Larry Dean still remembers with a smile what his mother said when he told her he was going to do his residency at the University of Washington.

“This was in 1980, and Mount St. Helens had just erupted, and my mother said with a worried look, ‘you’re not still going out there, are you?’ ”

Dean did spend three years at the UW. And 20 years later, he has returned to Seattle from his native Alabama, as director of the newly established UW Regional Heart Center and professor of medicine.

Larry Dean, director of the new UW Regional Heart Center. Photo by Gavin Sisk

The center will combine all areas of cardiology and cardiac surgery into one continuum of care for patients with cardiovascular disease, said Dean, himself an interventional cardiologist.

“This new service line will bring together the experience of the institution to benefit patient care,” he said.

The idea for such a center began more than a year ago as a proposal by Dr. Edward Verrier, chief of the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, and Dr. James Ritchie, director of the Division of Cardiology.

Dean, who was at the time the medical director of the cardiac catheterization labs and professor of medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, saw the proposal and was intrigued with it. He had done work on development of a similar concept at UAB, and the move to the UW seemed a natural one for him.

“We want this to be a one-stop shop for delivering cardiovascular services,” said Dean. “We don’t want patients or referring physicians to have to wade through our system to find the best care. We’ve always done an excellent job of patient care, but we’re not as good at delivering our services to referring physicians.”

Dean is confident this team approach will succeed because of the parties involved.

“We are changing the culture here by doing this,” he said. “Cardiovascular surgery, electrophysiology, interventional cardiology - all have been perceived as quite separate from one another. But we can provide better service as an integrated team.”

A good role model for the Regional Heart Center, according to Dean, is the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance formed three years ago between the UW, the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center.

“The SCCA is showing how people can get together to benefit patient care and still maintain the academic mission,” he said.

But Dean emphasized that it will take time to implement.

“We have very good people here, and we have a vision we are developing with the support of the dean and the chairs of Medicine, Surgery, Anesthesiology, and UW Medical Center management,” he said. The Regional Heart Center is listed as a breakthrough strategic initiative in the UWMC operating plan for fiscal year 2001.

A major challenge for the Regional Heart Center is creating access for patients, Dean said.

“The hospital has been very full this year,” he noted. “We have the ability to provide more service, but the beds aren’t available. There is also a national nursing shortage, which is not helping. But the support from nursing staff at UWMC has been excellent.”

Dean would also like to add space to the existing clinics and procedure areas, as well to increase capacity. A subspecialty clinic on the Eastside is in the discussion phase so patients could get their cardiovascular services closer to home.

“There’s such a desire to have this be successful. That’s why I moved across the country, because the support is there and the time is right to have this happen.”

Dean was raised in Tuscaloosa, Ala., in the shadow of the University of Alabama and its legendary football coach, Bear Bryant.

“I was working here at UWMC on the day of the first Husky game and looked out and saw everyone tailgating, and it reminded me a lot of games back home,” he said.

Dean looks back fondly at his first stint at the University as a resident.

“Our oldest daughter was born here,” he said. “But what I also remember was the tremendous diversity, both in patients and experiences, and the cutting edge research done at this institution. It is the reason I went into cardiology and academics as a career.”

One of the best experiences, he said, was spending two months living in Wenatchee as part of the WWAMI program.

Eighteen years later, he will spend part of his time again out in the WWAMI (Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and Idaho) region, telling referring physicians about the Regional Heart Center.

“My message to them will be that this is not a three- or-six-month project; this is a three-to-five year project, and even into the next decade,” he said. “We want to be the number one choice for cardiovascular services for patients and referring physicians, while maintaining our important academic and research missions.”