On October 5th Open Heart Surgery began at Winter Haven Hospital. Nine open-heart patients and 18 angioplasty
patients received care in the first two weeks. We have sought approval from the state for open-heart surgery and angioplasty since 1988, so we are very pleased to have finally received permission for this vital service for our community.

We are very grateful to Dr. Michael Carmichael and the Ocala Heart Institute for sharing their expertise and providing leadership and guidance. Many employees spent weeks at the Institute, learning from the physicians and employees. Dr. Carmichael, who was trained at the Texas Heart Institute, leads a highly qualified team of surgeons, anesthesiologists and perfusionists. He was the Director of the Heart Transplant team at the University of Florida before starting the community based Ocala Heart Center, which is rated as one of the top 100 open heart programs in the country.

Two years after Dr. Carmichael led the team to start an open-heart program in Leesburg, that program was also rated in the top 100 in the Country.

The team brings experience, expertise, and numerous honors for their exceptional work and genuine concern for the patient and the patient’s family. The reputation of the Ocala Heart Institute has resulted in hospital leaders around the state seeking their services. In addition to being at the two hospitals in Ocala, and in Leesburg they are currently at hospitals in Eustis, Venice and now here.

Dr. Kevin Brown, our Director of Interventional Cardiology, leads an exceptional, experienced team of invasive Cardiologists who began performing angioplasties on patients on October 10th. In addition to Dr. Browne the following invasive cardiologists are performing this vital procedure: Drs. Boris Nunez, Lazaro Diaz, Mark Mines, and Alan Brenner. Our excellent cardiologists, who have served patients so conscientiously for many years at Winter Haven Hospital, are grateful to now assure their patients complete cardiac services. Those cardiologists include: Drs. Kollagunta Chandrasekhar, Greg Gooden, Richard Guisti, Gary Johnson, Randall Kramer, Jose Vigoreaux and Ed Willard.

We have an exceptional team of physicians and employees in place and we are very excited about our ability to provide our community total cardiac care.

We are also pleased to share that Winter Haven Hospital was recently recognized as being one of the "Best Places to Work in Polk County". This designation was given by Polk Works/Workforce 2020.