Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital board approves critical care staffing model, educated on electrophysiology

ALBANY — In addition to taking action on a critical care staffing model, Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital Board of Directors were educated Wednesday on a specialty not present in many areas of the state that is making new strides in Southwest Georgia.

Dr. Kamil Hanna is an electrophysiologist with Cardiology Associates, making him among a handful of physicians in the state specializing in the treatment and diagnosis of abnormal heart rhythms. In his practice, he performs implants of pacemakers and defibrillators, catheter ablations and laser lead extractions.

The most recent new procedure added was cryoablation of atrial fibrillation, where a balloon catheter is used to locate and freeze the heart tissue that triggers an irregular heartbeat, which was first performed at Phoebe on Sept. 9.

“It’s very unique and modern technology,” Hanna, who has been with Phoebe since 2007, said to reporters after addressing the board on Wednesday. “The Europeans are ahead of us, and we are catching up.”

The first procedure was done at Phoebe with no complications afterward. It is performed in Atlanta, but not in many places nearby. With a 70 to 80 percent success rate, it can allow patients to get off of blood thinners and have a stronger quality of life, Hanna said.

“The last patient we did this for, when he came back a month later, he said ‘Thank you for giving life me my life back,’” he said.

Hanna, a native of Lebanon, received his undergraduate and medical degree from the American University of Beirut in Lebanon. He completed fellowships at the University of Oklahoma Health Science Center and the University of Arkansas for Medical Science in electrophysiology and cardiovascular diseases, respectively. He completed a residency in internal medicine from Mercer University School of Medicine at Mercer University School of Medicine, Medical College Campus of Georgia, and did residency training in vascular surgery in Stockholm, Sweden.

Hanna also studied internal medicine for a year at Kristinehamn Hospital in Kristinehamn, Sweden, and radiology at Nacka Hospital in Stockholm. He and his wife, Jill, have three children.

The staffing model, approved by the board Wednesday, is set to take effect on Jan. 1. It notes that all patients admitted to the adult intensive care units at Phoebe will be managed or co-managed by critical care physicians or intensivists, critical care physicians must be physically present in the ICUs at least eight hours a day, seven days a week with no patient care duties or other professional duties outside the units while managing ICU patients, intensivists or their designated midlevel provider must return at least 95 percent of pages within 15 minutes, patients must be seen within an hour of the determination that ICU admission is appropriate and that all intensivists should comply with evidence-based critical care protocols and care pathways established by the department.

The board approved creation of the critical care medicine department in July as part of an effort, officials said, to improve the quality of intensive care at the hospital. Phoebe created the department to establish a critical care model, including the addition of six board-certified intensivists.