Murfreesboro Post
MURFREESBORO WEATHER

Murfreesboro hospital adds cardiac surgery program




Clements

Rutherford County residents can now undergo heart surgeries in Murfreesboro for which they would have previously had to go to Nashville.

Last week, Ascension St. Thomas Rutherford introduced its new cardiac surgery program at its main campus at 1700 Medical Center Parkway.

“We are absolutely ecstatic to be able to bring it to St. Thomas Rutherford and to the citizens of Rutherford County and the surrounding area,” said Dr. Wilson Clements, chief of cardiac surgery at Ascension St. Thomas Rutherford. “This hospital has a huge footprint for the patients in the area that it serves, and this is a needed specialty service line.”

Over the past six months, more than 150 people had to be referred out of Rutherford County for evaluation, according to Dr. Aaron Hoffman.

“Keeping it local is a game changer,” Hoffman said. “It’s great for the community, it’s great for the people and it’s great for families, honestly.”

“This is an opportunity for us to help alleviate that and to take care of these patients in a more timely fashion,” said Luke Parham, physician assistant.

The cardiac surgery team will focus on coronary artery bypass grafting, aortic valve surgery, mitral valve surgery and ascending aortic aneurysm.

Coronary artery bypass grafting is designed to reestablish blood flow to parts of the heart that aren’t getting enough blood due to blocked arteries on the surface of the heart. Surgeons take arteries and veins from various parts of the patient’s body and use them to bypass the blockage. This procedure helps patients avoid heart attacks, severe angina and congestive heart failure.

Aortic valve surgery and mitral valve surgery replace or repair blocked or leaking valves in the heart.

“So what’s different about us that’s a little bit confusing to the general public is cardiology helps manage medicine, and they do a lot of interventions, but sometimes they need a heart surgeon to fix problems,” said Hallie McNew, nurse practitioner.

“Just because this is new to St. Thomas Rutherford, this is not new to Dr. Clements, and this is not new to Dr. Hoffman, Hallie (nurse practitioner McNew) or myself,” physicians assistant Luke Parham said. “We all have significant experience with this.”

Clements has spent 15 years in the field and performed more than 4,000 operations. Hoffman has been in the field for nine years. McNew has spent 15 years in nursing and seven years as a nurse practitioner. Parham has been in cardiac care for 13 years.