Brooklyn’s Providers of Cardiac Care Network at Dinner to Better Serve Community

By Yehudit Garmaise

To best treat and answer the questions of patients who are suffering from cardiac events, Hatzolah members and heimish referral agencies need to have at their fingertips the names and numbers of all the local heart physicians, their specialties, and subspecialties, which is why Maimonides Health met with 65 medical service providers and referral agency representatives at a dinner at the Loft Steakhouse on May 9.

After Covid prevented Boro Park’s medical providers from meeting face-to-face for two years, Brooklyn’s top cardiologists and cardiothoracic surgeons came to connect and re-connect with local medical providers and representatives of Refuah Helpline, Chaim Medical Resources, and other medical referral agencies.

Hatzolah members, who are often “the first line of defense,” when patients have cardiac events, explained Yidel Feig, who has served as a Hatzolah volunteer in Boro Park and the Catskills for 24 years, are often asked by ailing patients for referrals and for their assessments of different doctors.

“The more we get to speak and meet with the doctors, the better we know to whom to refer patients,” explained Feig, who also serves as the liaison manager of community relations at Maimonides Medical Center. “The more the local healthcare service providers know each other, the better for the community.”

In between courses, the physicians moved around and went from table-to-table to sit and schmooze one-on-one with leaders of Hatzolah and representatives of referral agencies, Feig explained.

Ken Gibbs, the Maimonides’ president, and CEO, first thanked the community for raising funds for the hospital’s new cardiothoracic intensive care unit and spoke about how much the hospital values its relationship with community leaders.

To speak about advancements in cardiac care and cardiothoracic surgery, Greg Ribakove, MD, Maimonides’ chief of cardiothoracic surgery Bob Frankel, MD, the director of the hospital’s Division of Interventional Cardiology, provided remarks.

Douglas Jablon, the hospital’s executive vice president, then surprised the crowd by introducing three grateful former patients who had recently had heart surgery and who came to meet and thank the doctors who helped to save their lives.

Upon his admission to Maimonides, one of the speakers was told that only 10% of his heart was working and he might need a transplant, which he did not end up needing after specialists performed a successful triple bypass surgery.

“The former patient was very happy with the care he received, and two months later: he was on his feet standing, pleased to be telling his story,” Feig said.

Benjamin Youdelman, MD, the director of Maimonides’ Aortic Center and Paul Saunders, MD, Maimonides’ director of Mechanical Circulatory Support initiated the Meet-and-Greet part of the evening.

“These networking events build relationships among medical service providers, who can in turn, provide more information, reassurance, and referrals of appropriate doctors to patients and their families.”