New heart center in east Wichita offers cardiac PET scanning

Heartland Cardiology has rapidly expanded over the past year. Its newest center is focused on patient convenience, with centralized cardiovascular services, said Barry Reynolds, CEO of the company.

The $9.6 million Heartland Webb center at 3535 N. Webb spent years in development and construction, but Reynolds said the long process ensured that the building was designed to be as efficient and comfortable for patients as possible.

The building is connected to the EPIC Heart Surgery Center, built in 2015 and designed with the help of Heartland physicians. The EPIC center offers a full-service catheter lab and outpatient surgical services, making it easier for patients to receive treatment across both centers.

The new center features a cardiac PET scanner, which Reynolds said is unique to the Wichita area. Much like a typical PET scan, cardiac PET scans provide imaging of the inside of a body, with the difference that cardiac PET scans hone in on the heart, giving doctors with an enhanced vision of the heart and better diagnostic reports.

One of the biggest bottlenecks for medical centers is not having enough exam rooms, so the new center has 42 exam rooms, double what the company had at its location on Hillside, and administrative offices on the center’s second floor. At 40,000 square feet, the center dwarfs the company’s next largest center in Derby, which is 8,700 square feet.

Cardiologist Assem Farhat, president of Heartland Cardiology, said the company acquired the site for the center with its location along an established medical corridor in mind.

“Heartland Webb is now our main clinic facility,” Reynolds said. “While the others are more regional, this clinic will serve people from throughout the state.”

The location on Webb marks Heartland Cardiology’s third center opened in the past year, in addition to two others in the Wichita area and several outreach clinics in the region. Reynolds credited the company’s rapid expansion to its patients.

“It’s extremely gratifying support from patients,” Reynolds said. “We grow because of word of mouth in the Wichita area. That’s more important and more valuable than any other marketing tool. The fact that our physicians take great care of patients and that we reinvest in ourselves, like the new PET scanner we showed today, contributes to that. It’s not just about the building, but it’s about what we’re doing inside of it.”

At a grand opening ceremony Monday, Mayor Jeff Longwell said Wichita’s healthcare industry has grown because of companies like Heartland.

“Wichita is becoming a destination healthcare city, and that is simply because of people like Heartland that are investing to make it special,” Longwell said.