Cardiologists Switch From Independent to Hospital Practice

Two local groups of heart doctors are switching from independent practices to working directly for Doylestown Hospital.

and (Cardiology Division) now come under the umbrella of the Village Improvement Association Affiliates (VIAA), a member of the VIA Health System. The two cardiology practices perform nearly all of the heart services at Doylestown Hospital.

Patients of the two practices will notice little difference in their day-to-day encounters beyond a name change for the Central Bucks Specialists practice to Doylestown Cardiology Associates–VIAA.

Patients will continue to see their cardiologist of choice in the same office they have always visited, hospital officials said in a statement. Cardiac testing services are provided by Doylestown Hospital

“These two practices have a long history of cooperation for the benefit of all patients at Doylestown Hospital. As members of the VIAA, the physicians, nurse practitioners and office staff will strengthen their alignment and ensure even greater clinical integration for patient satisfaction and outcomes,” said Dr. Scott S. Levy, vice president and chief medical officer for the hospital.

Doylestown Hospital recently completed the transition to Computerized Provider Order Entry (CPOE), an electronic inpatient medical record system. Together with the Doylestown Clinical Network, a health information exchange, physicians in the VIAA and community members of the hospital medical staff now share important elements of patient records, such as medications, lab results and allergies, in real time.

The Village Improvement Association of Doylestown is the women’s organization that founded and owns . The VIA Affiliates are the employed physician practices of Doylestown Hospital.

In addition to the two cardiology practices, the Affiliates include the hospital’s general surgeons and two cardiothoracic surgeons, the hospitalist service, a neurologist, and a specialist in wound care and hyperbaric medicine who is the medical director of the recently-opened Center for Wound Care and Hyperbaric Medicine.

The vast majority of Doylestown Hospital’s 400-member medical staff is in independent practices; most are members of the Bucks County Physician Hospital Alliance, a physician-hospital organization that supports the coordination and integration of care for patients in the community.

Doylestown Hospital was named among the 50 Top Cardiovascular Hospitals for 2012 by Thomson Reuters.

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