Del Rio Cardiologist plans new treatment facility for urgent care

May 1, 2007
By Bill Sontag
Feature Writer

Cardiac physician Dr. Michele Di Blasi and his wife, endocrinologist Dr. Tina Pilumeli Di Blasi, moved to Del Rio three years ago, knowing that the city was growing, and that their services as a highly skilled team would be needed. Now, with thousands of patients, the Di Blasis know they underestimated the demand.

The growth, however, is not simply in population, economic development, new housing starts, and better restaurants. If healthcare in the region showed signs of growing along with demands piling up from diabetes, heart and kidney disease, orthopedic problems, and the ramifications of an aging population, the Di Blasis might have less motivation to stay ahead of the curve, while enlisting other local physicians in the crusade.

The Del Rio Heart Institute and Diabetes Center may soon need another name to more accurately describe the range of services and skilled expertise available now and soon to expand. Recently, Michele Di Blasi talked to LIVE!, sharing his dreams and expectations, many already off the planning table and nascent at the 3809 Veterans Blvd. office.

“There are a lot of sick people in Del Rio with heart disease, kidney disease, diabetes and vascular problems,” Di Blasi said March 30. “Hispanics are more prone to get diabetes, but it’s a general problem here that affects many aspects of a person’s health. It can be diet, it can be genetics, it can be lifestyle. But the main thing is the lack of exercise people are getting. And it’s the fats, carbohydrates, salt and sugars, too. Those are the poisons!”

But Di Blasi sees hope and a big dose of optimism in the sophisticated diagnostic, preventive medicine and treatment capabilities emerging in the new 5,000-square-foot office building he and his wife and staff share, soon to enlarge. Currently, specialties at the center include cardiology, pacemaker and defibrillator applications, vascular disease, diabetes and thyroid disease.

Di Blasi’s vision now is to develop a complex of medical services in and adjacent to his current offices on the city’s north side, roughly 40,000 square feet, in all. Plans are underway to develop centers of urgent care, surgery and wound care.

“We will build an urgent care center here, and may start construction in the next month or so,” said Di Blasi. The American Academy of Urgent Care Medicine says the practice “concentrates on the evaluation and treatment of acutely rising conditions in all age groups,” adding, “Urgent care specialists often first diagnose chronic conditions, generally with referrals to primary care physicians.”

In other words, urgent care addresses sudden medical conditions – such as chest pain, abdominal pain, and shortness of breath, but not traumas such as auto accident injuries, stabbings or gunshot wounds – needing quick evaluation and treatment. Symptoms and conditions that have been around awhile – such as colds, flu, skin rash, etc. – should be treated continuously by primary care doctors unless there’s a rapid deterioration. “Ours will include a chest pain clinic,” Di Blasi gave as one example. “I want to be able to provide service to every patient with chest pain, right away, not making them feel they either need to just sit at home or drive all the way to San Antonio or San Angelo.”

The urgent care center alone necessitates addition of more than 3,500 square feet of office area, adjacent to the existing building, and will include services from several physicians, including Dr. Shamoon Abbas Doctor, urologist specializing in prostate problems, urinary dysfunction and kidney disease, will add to the multidisciplinary cadre. “Our plan for this is almost no waiting time for patients in the urgent care center. Fifteen minutes, and they’re in,” said Di Blasi.

The surgical center under consideration would employ the services of local physicians already expressing interest in this alternative to more expensive, traditional services here and in other cities. It will also provide the services of Drs. Di Blasi and Dr. Doctor – as well as others still under consideration – in an unprecedented partnership arrangement for the region. The complex, Di Blasi said, will feature “one stop shopping,” including a pharmacy, nursing services, and oxygen and durable medical equipment supplies.

Di Blasi dismisses accusations that he and the other physicians are competing with the already cash-strapped Val Verde Regional Medical Center. “I don’t feel this is going to be disruptive for the hospital. It will prove that, here in Del Rio, we can provide good service for healthcare, and that will actually benefit the hospital,” Di Blasi said. Architects are already at work, developing plans and renderings for construction of the complex.

Until grand openings are celebrated for the expanded center, Di Blasi continues to add new diagnostic and treatment technologies and skills to the practice. In addition to recent implementation of diagnostic procedures, such as nuclear stress testing, or therapeutic treatments, such as enhanced external counterpulsation (EECP) for angina, Di Blasi has brought “shortness of breath triage” diagnostic equipment to the office.

With the small machine – not much larger than two loaves of bread – Di Blasi can assess possible heart attack, pulmonary embolism, and congestive heart failure. Awaiting licensing for use of the new device, Di Blasi expects to begin the service in June. “With this, I can find out if a patient is on the edge of congestive heart failure, and begin immediately pushing medications to prevent it to avoid that patient going into crisis,” Di Blasi said.

Di Blasi’s office has added “spirometry testing” to the mix of diagnostic technologies and staff capabilities. Anna Hutchison, already certified in many diagnostic skills such as EECP, tests patients for measurements of lung function by having them blow into a mouthpiece connected to a spirometry machine. The device gauges the total amount of air a patient can forcibly expel after taking a deep breath. The FVC (forced vital capacity) report, shown immediately on a computer terminal, aids Di Blasi in assessing lung strength, volume and elasticity, all important for patients considering a new product, inhaled insulin, for example.

Michele and Tina Di Blasi are approaching the complete transformation of office records to computer systems and multiple backups. “I think we are probably 98 percent ‘paperless’ now,” said Di Blasi. Nearly instantaneous transfer of patient records from office to hospital to his home and beyond makes consultations, information transfer and retrieval faster and better understood by all recipients.

But all of Di Blasi’s work philosophy is not dominated by new gadgets, electronic devices, and acquisition of “high tech” skills. His passions include patient education and discipline to prevent the very problems forcing resort to life-saving surgery. Basic lifestyle changes, he is certain, may invigorate and lengthen the lives of patients before they develop health-threatening conditions.

“I just returned from the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology, in New Orleans,” Di Blasi explained, where he heard encouraging research results. “If we treat LDL – the “bad cholesterol – to reduce it, and HDL – the “good” cholesterol – to get it as high as possible, it’s now been shown that we can obtain a regression of plaque and blockages in the bloodstream,” Di Blasi said.

Now, with the knowledge that blockages can be reduced – not simply stabilized – with patient attention to diet and exercise, he hopes to help patients lower their LDL cholesterol levels to 60 mg/dl (milligrams per deciliter), well within the “optimal” range now advanced by physicians.

“If we can really try to do that, we can save a lot of amputations, blindness and cardiac failure among our patients,” Di Blasi said.

For more information, see the Di Blasis’ Web site, www.delrioheart.com.