Branson Heart Center open on Highway 248

The 13 staff members and four cardiologists of the Branson Heart Center began receiving patients Feb. 28 at their new medical clinic on Missouri Highway 248 in Branson. "We needed much more room," said Joseph C. Dwyer, MD, FACC.

The cardiology group left a 2,300-square-foot office just north of Branson to occupy the top floor of the new, 14,000-square-foot building built by St. John's Health System of Springfield through its contractor, Springfield Builders Inc.

Mike Peters, vice president of communications for St. John's Health System, said his organization has no immediate plans for the bottom floor of the facility. The building was constructed at a cost of $860,000.

Dwyer said Branson has been in need of a comprehensive heart center. "The retirement community is growing in Branson. Many of those patients come to us," he said. Dwyer opened his Branson practice in 1994.

Besides himself, Dwyer said the group comprises three other board-certified physicians in internal medicine and cardiology including Narin Arunakul, MD, FACC, and Stone County physicians Alok Katyal, MD, and Nitin Kher, MD, FACC.

The Branson Heart Center offers a full range of non-invasive heart testing. "We have lots of testing in-office: echocardiograms, all forms of stress testing, including nuclear scanning and a pacemaker clinic," Dwyer said.

The clinic also offers heart rhythm evaluation through Holter, and event monitoring and ultrasound evaluation of carotid arteries.

A first for Branson was the insertion of an implantable defibrillator in a heart patient, Dwyer said. He said Arunakul performed the procedure at Skaggs Community Health Center.

"We work very closely with Skaggs. We provide support for their new cath lab," Dwyer said. "We've already doubled the expected volume (of catheterization patients) for the first year."

The catheterization lab, which is used for diagnostic and interventional procedures for the heart and vascular system, as well as for abdomen, head, neck and extremities, opened at Skaggs Community Health Center last June.

The Branson Heart Center also performs balloon and stent procedures, and tilt table testing for evaluation of syncope (fainting), in conjunction with Skaggs.

Dwyer predicts area residents will see cardiac surgery performed in Branson in the near future.

"We've been pushed from the start to have heart surgery in Branson," Dwyer said.

"We're excited because Skaggs has submitted a Certificate of Need to renovate the operating room for heart surgery."

The Certificate of Need, applied for in January, is up for a hearing April 3 before the Missouri Health Facilities Review Committee, according to Mary Jo Fisk, communications coordinator for Skaggs Community Health Center.

Fisk said the Certificate of Need encompasses the renovation and modernization of the health center to include a new open-heart surgery program, a second catheterization lab, 12 new critical care unit beds and expansion of the emergency room.

She said the entire project would include 21,500 square feet of new construction and 18,000 square feet of renovation at an estimated cost of $15.5 million.