Rockwood Clinic PS, of Spokane, recently opened the newly formed Rockwood Heart & Vascular Center for a group of its doctors specializing in the diagnoses and treatment of heart disease and cardiovascular problems.

Five cardiologists and one vascular surgeon now practice in a 10,200-square-foot remodeled ninth-floor suite in the Deaconess Health & Education Center, at 910 W. Fifth, just west of Deaconess Medical Center.

The cardiologists had occupied temporary space in a South Hill building after Providence Health Care terminated leases last spring for space they'd occupied in its facilities. Providence terminated the leases after competing hospital network operator Community Health Systems Inc., of Franklin, Tenn., acquired Rockwood Clinic.

The vascular surgeon, Dr. Glenn Gardner, formerly was at an office in the Deaconess Medical Building, at 801 W. Fifth.

The Heart & Vascular Center officially opened on March 21, says Rockwood Clinic spokeswoman Jill Fix.

Rockwood Clinic plans to add two more cardiologists to the practice by the end of this summer, bringing the total number of physicians to eight.

Dr. Douglas Wysham, one of the center's cardiologists, says the merging of the heart specialists with a vascular surgeon will provide patients requiring heart and vein-related treatments better coordinated care.

"It allows us to communicate better; we're in the hospital facility itself, and we can take care of hospital patients more efficiently," Wysham says. "It's more convenient for us and for the patient."

The previously unoccupied suite was remodeled to meet the needs of the specialists practicing there and takes up half of the ninth floor of the building, Fix says.

Graham Construction & Management Inc., of Spokane, was the contractor for the ninth-floor tenant improvements, which had an estimated cost of about $1.2 million.

The new clinic includes 20 examination rooms, 14 practitioner offices, two echocardiogram diagnostic rooms, and two rooms used for treadmill exercise stress tests. There are about six rooms in all at the clinic that serve as diagnostic test areas, says Colleen Tymensky, a consultant with CHS who helped coordinate the move into the new suite.

"The beauty of having the tests here is that it's done in real time," Tymensky says. "If there is a need for intervention when they do the diagnostic and it's an immediate need, they can immediately refer the patient to where that's provided."

Wysham and the clinic's team of specialists see patients for a variety of heart- and blood vessel-related health issues, including chest palpitations, heart failure, chest pain, heart attacks, and thrombosis, among others, he says.

The doctors also implant and monitor pacemakers, which are used to improve patients' heart function, he says. Patients needing stents and other angioplasty procedures to improve blood flow also are seen there.

Fix says that this is the first permanent relocation of a group of Rockwood's specialty practitioners since CHS bought the practice in January of 2010. Last June, Rockwood began moving its clinics and doctors' offices to temporary quarters from the Sacred Heart Doctors Building and other Providence Health Care-owned facilities.

"We needed them close to the hospital so they were the first ones relocated to the permanent space," Fix says.

Now that the six specialists are located under one roof, Rockwood's patients needing care for heart or vascular health issues, or both, are able to come to one central location, Wysham says, and receive care through what Rockwood refers to as its integrated delivery system.

Fix says that means that patients seen at the Heart & Vascular Center easily can be referred to a number of other specialty doctors in Deaconess' network for any needed ancillary care.

"At Deaconess, we have pulmonary consultants, and they are part of our team that cares for patients here, and we have physical therapy that is coordinated out of Rockwood at both Deaconess and Valley Hospital," she says.

She adds that Rockwood's electronic medical records system also is accessible to all of its providers as a part of its integrated-care approach to improve communication about patients between them.

Wysham says that he and the four other cardiologists at the Heart & Vascular Center originally had been practicing at the Heart Institute of Spokane, located at 122 W. Seventh. Since last June they'd been located temporarily at the former Group Health building at 3104 S. Regal, he says.

Besides the six physicians, the Heart & Vascular Center has four nurse practitioners and one physician's assistant. It employs a total of 34 people, Wysham says.

Fix says that last summer Rockwood sent more than 9,000 letters to the cardiologists' patients to inform them of the doctors' temporary relocation to the space on Regal. Those letters went to patients who'd been seen by the doctors at least once in the last three years, she says, adding that the number is an estimate of how many patients currently are enrolled in the Heart & Vascular Center's system.

The Rockwood Urology Center and the Rockwood Weight Loss Surgery Center and Surgical Group are the next specialty clinics that are planned to relocate to the Deaconess Health & Education Center.