By Vanessa Orr
In November, Jose Baez-Escudero, M.D., became the first systemwide chief of cardiology and electrophysiology for Broward Health Physician Group. In this newly created position, he plans to not only expand the cardiology service line across the health system, but to position Broward Health as a key player in advanced cardiovascular care within the county.
“With the onboarding of Dr. Baez, Broward Health continues to enhance the subspecialty cardiovascular programs we provide, ensuring Broward Health patients have access to a unified multidisciplinary team and innovative treatment solutions,” said Jenna Merlucci, FACHE, vice president of heart and vascular services at Broward Health.
“Dr. Baez will help strengthen our current capabilities and also contribute to our long-term goals of improving heart health and advancing our vision to be the champion for a healthier community,” said Bernardo B. Fernandez Jr., M.D., corporate physician executive.
Before taking the position at Broward Health, Dr. Baez worked for the past 14 years at the Cleveland Clinic Weston Hospital as the leader of its electrophysiology program. He also served as the interim chairman of cardiology for a number of years and led the cardiac fellowship program.
“Broward Health already has a very strong foundation in cardiac services, but I saw an opportunity for me to improve our structure and how we work together to advance our multi-specialty programs,” he said.
Dr. Baez’s vision includes building a group of electrophysiologists who will enable Broward Health to offer modern electrophysiology services at all of its hospitals. He also plans to expand some of the health system’s other cardiac service lines working in conjunction with the service line vice president and other cardiac surgeons.
“I want to position Broward Health as a key player in cardiology within the county, and that will include strategically growing specialty service lines in cardiology, hiring more talented cardiologists to the team, and creating specific teams for each hospital,” he said. “In the long term, this will help to improve heart health within our community.”
This is especially important now as more people move into South Florida and the demand for cardiac services grows.
“We hope that with some of these strategic changes, more patients will turn to Broward Health to get better quality cardiovascular care,” said Dr. Baez. “Certainly, the demand is already here, so we’re hopeful with the upcoming changes we can attract more local patients.”
In the coming months, Dr. Baez plans on making improvements in office space, as well as introducing more structured service lines — having groups of cardiologists all located in one office building, for example. He also plans on improving the software used for patient care, including utilizing Broward Health’s recent Epic launch to help care coordination among services. There are also plans to update procedure rooms, such as the cardiac cath lab and electrophysiology rooms with newer equipment and to start a structural heart service line in order to provide patients needing additional intervention more options in addition to open heart surgery, such as replacing heart valves percutaneously.
Dr. Baez also envisions expanding the fellowship positions within the graduate medical education program at Broward Health to benefit the next generation of cardiologists.
“This will entail expanding the current cardiology fellowship as well as creating new subspeciality fellowships to train cardiologists in interventional cardiology, electrophysiology and heart failure,” he explained. “By adding these multi-subspecialty fellowships, we can create a more cohesive team and provide better educational opportunities for doctors who want to train here.”
Dr. Baez, who is originally from Ecuador, received his medical degree from the Universidad San Francisco de Quito and trained in internal medicine at Temple University in Philadelphia. He completed his cardiology fellowship at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and a second fellowship in cardiac electrophysiology at the University of Chicago.
