Dr. John Harvey, CEO at Oklahoma Heart Hospital, in his office at Oklahoma Heart Hospital in Oklahoma City Thursday, Nov. 6, 2008. BY PAUL B. SOUTHERLAND
The opening of a $30 million expansion of Oklahoma Heart Hospital next month is something that Dr. John R. Harvey holds close to his, well, heart. The Oklahoma cardiologist years ago was one of two men who started the beat for a dedicated cardiology practice and eventual hospital here. Today, the partnership is hitting a perfect rhythm.
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Dec. 19, the nationally renowned facility at 4050 W Memorial will move from 78 beds to 99, 230,000 square feet to 300,000. Moreover, leaders plan to use the same footprint to open in January 2010 a sister facility at Sooner Road and Interstate 240.
Oklahoma Heart Center currently has 700 employees. The hospital is home to more than 1,200 heart surgeries annually, and 3,000 stents and angioplasties. More than 500 Oklahomans have heart scans there every month.
"You can’t see the blood or arteries, but can see the calcium or plaque,” Harvey explains. Viewing and treating such blockages, he said, can prevent heart attacks and strokes, which strike nearly half of all people.
Interventional cardiology is Harvey’s passion. Before he ventured out on his own, he served as director of interventional cardiology and assistant professor of medicine at the University of Oklahoma from 1987 to 1991.
Harvey recently sat down with The Oklahoman to talk about his professional and personal life. The following is an edited transcript.
Q: Tell us about your childhood. A: I lived in Beaver, in the easternmost county of the Oklahoma Panhandle, from age 5 through high school graduation. My father was a family doctor there and mother, a homemaker. They had four children: girl, boy, girl, boy. I was the second eldest.
When I was growing up in Beaver, the town had a population of 2,000 and five doctors; now they’re lucky if they hold onto one. My father would have dinner with us, but he always brought his doctor’s bag home with him. House calls were common throughout his practice.
Q: Did you always want to be a doctor? A: No. In fact, because I saw my dad work all the time, I thought that was the one thing I’d never be. But I enjoyed science, majored in biology at Oklahoma Baptist University, and at the time, that’s about all you could do with a biology degree — be a doctor, a dentist or teach. I wanted and like having an occupation with a direct connection to helping people.
Q: Why cardiology? A: When I studied the heart, it just clicked with me. I understood it better than other areas of medicine, and it was more interesting. I liked the fact I could blend working with my hands, for hospital procedures like placing stents and catheters, with seeing patients in clinic.
Q: You and a partner started your own cardiology practice, Oklahoma Cardiology Associates, in 1991; and in 2002, OCA partnered with Mercy to open the Oklahoma Heart Hospital. Mercy owns 45 percent. What was your motivation? A: I liked the satisfaction of creating the association and watching it grow, over the past 17 years, from a two-man operation to 40 doctors. Today, we see patients at clinics in 40 locations statewide. Tuesday, I was in Ada, Holdenville and Seminole.
We started the hospital because we wanted to provide better care to patients. To do that, we felt we needed full-time quality nurses dedicated only to cardiology nursing. When we opened the hospital’s doors, there were only a few other cardiology hospitals nationwide. Today, there are about 15, 10 of which are owned by MedCath Corp.Q: Are there any particular patients or cases that stand out for you in your long career? A: We once treated the Oklahoma City father of one of the directors of the Texas Heart Institute in Houston. She initially insisted her dad come there for treatment, but he wanted to stay here. By the end of his treatment, his daughter was meeting with our chief operating officer and registered nurse Peggy Tipton, wanting information on how we do things.
More recently, one of our volunteers suffered a cardiac arrest and collapsed on site. He went straight to emergency surgery and we saved his life. He likely would have died, if he hadn’t been at this hospital. I take pride in stories like these.
Q: What does the future of cardiology hold? A: Procedures will be less invasive and less painful, and recoveries will be quicker. Already, some procedures — including valve repair — are being done robotically, without opening the chest. It’s much like laparoscopies for abdominal surgeries. Our goal is that most of our open heart surgeries eventually will be done that way. And we think we’ll get there within five years.
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PERSONALLY SPEAKING
→Position: Chief executive officer and medical director, Oklahoma Heart Hospital.
→Birth date: March 18, 1955.
→Childhood home: Beaver.
→Family: Kim, married 22 years; three sons, 18-year-old identical twins, and a 16 year old — all attend Heritage Hall.
→Education: Oklahoma Baptist University, bachelor’s in biology; University of Oklahoma College of Medicine; postgraduate training at the OU Health Sciences Center; and fellowships in cardiology there and in interventional cardiology at Boston’s Beth Israel Hospital.
→Professional affiliations: He serves on the board for the Oklahoma Foundation for Cardiovascular Research and the Physician Hospitals of America.
→Pastimes: The daily crossword and working the Sunday New York Times puzzle with Kim, golf, trips with the family across the U.S., Mexico and Canada.
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