MVRH Brings New Cardiology Service

By VERNON ROBISON

The Progress

Mesa View Regional Hospital (MVRH) has been laying the groundwork for a successful new cardiology and pulmonology program in the community of Mesquite. The hospital is welcoming a team of two new providers who have extensive experience in building cardiology/pulmonary programs in rural areas similar to Mesquite.

Dr. Irfan Mirza and Dr. Anees Arshad have recently joined the team at MVRH.
Hospital CEO Kelly Adams introduced the two specialists at the monthly membership luncheon of the Mesquite Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday, May 12 at the Eureka casino. Adams explained that the recruitment of these two physicians was part of an ongoing effort to expand services offered at the local hospital to meet the unique needs of the Mesquite community.

Over the last five months, since Adams has taking over management of MVRH, he has been focusing his attention on what he calls the “outmigration” of patients from MVRH to other hospitals in the region.

“What we are seeing is that a lot of patients are being transferred to either St. George or Las Vegas,” Adams said. “So my first thought has been on how do we stem that tide and provide more of those services here. Because we are hearing from many community members who tell us, ‘Please, we are tired of going to St. George. We want to stay here at home. So do what is needed to keep us here.”
Adams and his staff has done an extensive study into the epidemiology of the community trying to determine where the hospital should focus its efforts

“We wanted to identify what diseases are most common here and then track it backwards in terms of how we can best answer the needs that are out there,” Adams said. “How can we best answer cardiology? The cancer needs? The pulmonary needs… and on and on.”

That study found that the top two needs in the community are in the fields of cardiology and pulmonology, Adams said. In response to that, Adams has begun with the process of bringing new providers to the community to meet those needs.

“These two guys are workhorses,” Adams said of Mirza and Arzad. “They totally understand what it takes to produce good cardiology/pulmonology service in a rural setting.”

“So there are a number of things that you are going to start seeing your hospital really participating in and really start doing to keep the patients here at home,” Adams added.

Mirza took a few minutes at the luncheon to introduce himself to the community. Mirza completed an internal medicine residency at Brookdale University Medical Hospital in Brooklyn, New York. After completing his internal medicine training he completed a cardiology fellowship at the State University of New York.

In the year 2000, Mirza relocated from Manhatten to a small medical center serving the Bullhead City, Arizona/Laughlin, Nevada area.

Upon his arrival, he said that he encountered a community similar to Mesquite where the medical facility was geared toward transporting patients elsewhere for treatment.

“It was like a warzone,” Mirza said. “There were six helicopters and a yard full of ambulances all set to bring patients into Las Vegas which was the closest city.”

Mirza soon became concerned that all of the training he had done over the past seven years, specifically in the area of cardiology, would start to get rusty for lack of experience. “I was worried that I would lose all of those skills,” he said.

So with the help of other physicians at the facility, he and Arshad started a cardiology program there. It was a success.

“After some time, I realized that I had developed this niche in a small community,” Mirza said. “Because the demographics are just what Mr. Adams said. The number one cause of hospital admissions is cardiology, followed by lungs or pulmonology. Those issues go hand in hand.”

Mirza said that he began to branch out to other surrounding communities including Kingman and Fort Mojave in Arizona, and Needles, California.

“I was able to bring a lot of doctors in and train them in rural medicine and rural cardiology because we had limited resources,” Mirza said.

The system extended to other types of providers who would bring additional specialties and expertise, Mirza said.

In addition, they worked with local fire departments, Emergency Medical Services personnel and medical transport services to coordinate care of patients.

“We have developed several systems which have furthered the optimal health and quality of care in the communities,” Mirza said.

Mirza stated that, under this program, the number of hospital admissions went from six to 25-30 on a daily basis. The cardiology practice increased from zero to nearly 6,000 patients in three years, he said.
Arshad also spent a moment to introduce himself to the Chamber members. Arshad completed internal medicine residency, also at Brookdale University. He then proceeded to specialize in the field of pulmonary and critical care medicine.

He continued talking about the successes experienced by the two partners in Bullhead City.
“In the time of COVID year, we were able to retain at least 20-30 percent transfers to Las Vegas,” Arshad said. “By doing that we were able to relieve the urban hospitals which were over crowded and staff was overworked. And we were able to keep the patients closer to home.”

Arshad said that they were pleased to be in Mesquite to institute much of that same model at MVRH. “We are very excited to be able to provide the same thing here that we have done for more than 20 years now,” he said.

At the end of the presentation, MVRH Marketing Director Rob Fuller stood to make an announcement; one that he feared Adams might be too modest to make himself.

“On May 1, Mr. Adams was officially announced as, and he accepted, the position as permanent CEO here at Mesa View,” Fuller said.

Previously Adams had been appointed as Interim CEO.
“I think that is just amazing. And just in the five months that Kelly has been here I have been inspired and encouraged. His approach to things for our community has been inclusive and he is doing amazing things.”