St. Louis Children’s Hospital (SLCH) has expanded its cardiology services from six days a month to four days a week—Monday through Thursday—at Barnes-Jewish West County Hospital. In January 2010, plans call for adding hours on Fridays as well, and for offering echocardiography services to area pediatricians needing testing-only appointments.
“Our goal is to make our services as accessible as possible to our patients and families living in St. Louis County. These expanded office hours also will help us manage the significant increase in patient referrals we are experiencing,” says Angela Sharkey, MD, SLCH pediatric cardiologist and director of fetal echocardiography services. “This increase is due in part to our ability to recruit outstanding new faculty members. Their added expertise is enhancing our services, particularly in the areas of electrophysiology, interventional cardiology and treatment of arrhythmias.”
Of the 11 cardiologists on staff at Children’s Hospital, five see patients at Barnes-Jewish West County Hospital: Dr. Sharkey; Mark Johnson, MD; Joshua Murphy, MD; Jennifer Silva, MD; and George Van Hare, MD.
“Drs. Van Hare and Silva have particular expertise in electrophysiology, which is enabling us to offer an arrhythmia clinic as part of our West County services,” says Dr. Sharkey. “And of course all of our West County patients may benefit from specialized services offered at Children’s Hospital such as exercise stress testing, specialty echo services including fetal and transesophageal echo, and transcather procedures such as implantation of ASD devices, PDA closures, and catheter ablation.”
To speak with a cardiologist or to refer a patient to BJWCH, call Children’s Direct at 800.678.HELP.