BFMC Heart & Vascular Program Moves to Main Hospital Building

GREENFIELD — Baystate Heart & Vascular’s Greenfield practice has moved from its former location at 48 Sanderson St. to a renovated space on the second floor of Baystate Franklin Medical Center, 164 High St. The new office suite is adjacent to BFMC’s Cardiopulmonary Department. The renovations and move will allow Baystate Franklin to add more continuity to the care of heart and vascular patients.

Patients will be closer to testing areas, including the stress lab, echocardiography, imaging, and inpatient rooms, should the need arise. “All our cardiopulmonary testing is right in the same building, so if someone needs a stress test, for example, the lab is right down the hall,” explained Dr. Thomas Higgins, interim president and CEO of Baystate Franklin Medical Center and the Baystate Health Northern Region. “It’s less travel for our patients, and makes it more efficient for our physicians to supervise those tests.”

The move also offers greater flexibility with provider schedules. Because of time saved not having to send patients and physicians back and forth from Sanderson Street to the testing labs in the main hospital, providers will be able to see more patients throughout the day for both consults and follow-ups. Both providers and patients are saving time by not having to walk between the two buildings for consultations in one building and testing in another.

“This is an unbelievable opportunity for our physicians to streamline their activities, as inpatient beds, ICU, and cardiopulmonary testing are all just down the hall,” said Dr. Aaron Kugelmass, vice president and medical director, Heart & Vascular Services, Baystate Health. “We are realizing a dream that we have had of regionalizing care across Western Massachusetts, and doing it in a way that provides outstanding local services, so people don’t have to travel to get the nationally recognized level of care they deserve.”

Added Dr. Timothy Egan, cardiologist and medical director of Cardiology at BFMC, “this allows us, day to day, to take care of more patients, with more flexibility in our schedules, and to take care of both our inpatients and outpatients more efficiently.”