Baylor Announces Alliance with Cleveland Clinic By Susan Schrock for the Star-Telegram
DALLAS – Baylor Scott & White Health announced a new alliance Thursday with one of the country’s top heart hospitals, a move officials say will advance medical research, help shorten transplant waiting lists and make quality care more accessible and affordable for Texas and Oklahoma cardiovascular patients.
The Cleveland Clinic’s Sydell and Arnold Miller Family Heart & Vascular Institute has selected three Baylor hospitals, two in Dallas and one in Plano, as exclusive providers for its Texas and Oklahoma cardiac patients who are seeking surgery or treatment closer to home.
Under the alliance, the top-ranked Ohio hospital will help coordinate care, develop programs and best practices designed to improve patient safety and collaborate on clinical research with Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas, The Heart Hospital Baylor Plano and Baylor Jack and Jane Hamilton Heart and Vascular Hospital.
“The opportunities we have with this collaboration to share best practices among our clinicians, to look at research and innovation on cardiovascular care, really is going to make it better at the end of the day for the patient,” Baylor Scott & White Health CEO Joel Allison. “That’s why we’re all here.”
The alliance between Cleveland Clinic and Baylor Scott & White Health took about a year to formalize, which included an evaluation of the Baylor hospitals procedures and adoption of recommended improvements. The partnership allows Baylor hospital physicians and surgeons to consult with Cleveland Clinic on individual cases as well as collaborate research efforts on cutting-edge medications and procedures, such as being able to replace heart valves without surgery.
Being associated with a top-ranked heart hospital is expected to bring even bigger boost to the Baylor hospitals’ reputation for providing quality cardiac care and help attract highly sought physicians and surgeons, said Dr. Michael Mack, cardiovascular services medical director.
