Stepping into Kansas Heart Hospital means joining a tightly-knit community of professionals who value both clinical excellence and collegial relationships. From your first day, you'll be embraced by a team that blends decades of cardiovascular expertise with a refreshingly responsive approach to both patient care and physician needs.
The cardiovascular team at Kansas Heart Hospital has been meticulously built over decades, creating an exceptional foundation for a new physician to build upon. The current team includes respected cardiologists whose names have become synonymous with cardiovascular excellence in Kansas, and who are now preparing to transition portions of their established practices to the next generation.
As you walk through the doors of Kansas Heart Hospital, you'll immediately sense the unique culture that comes from having physicians in leadership roles. Dr. Gregory F. Duick serves as both Chairman and President, Dr. Mark T. Bowles as Chief of Staff, Dr. Baoliang Zhao as Medical Director, and Steve Harris as Chief Executive Officer. This leadership team meets weekly as part of the "L5" leadership group to address any issues that arise, ensuring a level of responsiveness that is nearly impossible to find in traditional hospital settings.
During a recent conversation with senior physician, Dr. Thomas Ashcom, he shared, "When I came to Wichita in 1993, I was in the military with no connection to the Midwest. But after interviewing, I realized this was everything I was looking for. The combination of clinical excellence, physician autonomy, and collaborative culture was simply unmatched." This sentiment continues to define the practice today.
At Kansas Heart Hospital, you'll practice with the confidence that comes from having exceptional clinical support at every level. Rather than spending your energy managing staffing issues or fighting for resources, you'll be able to focus entirely on patient care with the knowledge that your team has both the expertise and dedication to execute your treatment plans flawlessly.
A particularly valuable aspect of the APP team is their role in screening calls during on-call hours. As one physician explained, "The APPs handle 20-30 calls per night, only escalating true emergencies to the physician. This means you're only called for situations that truly require your expertise, which makes a tremendous difference in quality of life."
During a tour of the facilities, you'll see firsthand how the technical staff's expertise translates to clinical efficiency. The echo technicians are cross-trained in vascular studies, the nuclear team manages up to 18 studies daily, and the cath lab staff's experience means procedures run smoothly with minimal delays or complications.
The nursing team at Kansas Heart Hospital exemplifies the specialized expertise that comes from focusing exclusively on cardiovascular care. From the ICU to the clinic, these professionals have developed an intuitive understanding of cardiac patients' needs and the subtle clinical changes that can signal important developments.
As you make rounds, you'll quickly come to appreciate the nursing team's expertise and dedication. Their focused cardiovascular experience means they often detect subtle changes before they become evident in the clinical data, and their established relationships with the physician team creates seamless communication even during busy periods.
Perhaps the most refreshing aspect of Kansas Heart Hospital's staff structure is an administrative team that genuinely views its role as supporting physicians rather than controlling them. This orientation stems directly from the physician leadership model and creates a dramatically different experience than most hospital environments.
The impact of this physician-centric administration is evident in every aspect of the practice. When a physician recently wanted to introduce a new hypertension procedure that had moved beyond research but wasn't yet mainstream, the administrative team worked collaboratively to evaluate the financial aspects and implement the program within weeks rather than the months or years such a change would typically require.
The staff at Kansas Heart Hospital has created a culture of mutual support that stands in stark contrast to the siloed approach common in many cardiac programs. Physicians routinely back up their colleagues, staff members proactively address issues before they affect patient care, and everyone shares a commitment to maintaining the program's reputation for excellence.
During conversations with various team members, several themes consistently emerged: pride in the quality of care provided, appreciation for the lack of bureaucracy, and genuine enjoyment of the collegial working relationships. As one clinic staff member put it, "We work as a team here. We support each other, and that makes all the difference for both us and our patients."
Beyond the core staff, you'll benefit from established collaborative relationships with specialists throughout the region, including vascular surgeons for complex peripheral vascular cases, KU Medical Center for advanced heart failure and transplant care, and an extensive network of primary care providers who trust Kansas Heart Hospital implicitly with their patients.
These relationships have been cultivated over decades, particularly through the outreach clinic program, which has built extraordinary loyalty among rural physicians. Unlike the typical referral relationship, these rural providers view Kansas Heart physicians as genuine partners in their patients' care, creating a level of trust that translates directly to practice volume and satisfaction.
As you consider joining Kansas Heart Hospital, recognize that you'll be stepping into not just a job, but a community of professionals who have created something extraordinary in Wichita – a physician-led, patient-centered program that combines clinical excellence with a genuinely supportive culture. This is the rare opportunity where the right physician can truly have it all: clinical autonomy, administrative support, collaborative colleagues, and the platform to practice cardiovascular medicine at the highest level.