we've been talking about staying
heart-healthy this month February is
American Heart Month and that's why
cardiac specialists are stressing the
importance of taking care of your heart
and staying on top of it can be
difficult for people who maybe don't
have insurance but there are places in
Central Florida that can help you that
includes the Trina Hildago Heart Care
Center in Orlando
earlier this week morning maker Kirsten
O'Connor showed us how they've already
helped thousands of uninsured patients
so we wanted to know more we're bringing
in Cindy Hayes from the center so good
morning thank you so much for joining us
good morning thank you for having first
of all tell us a little bit about your
Center for folks who don't now it's a
cardiology clinic based it's from an
Advent health and it's for patients that
have cardiac disease that has already
been diagnosed and if they don't have
insurance then it's very hard to find a
place to be taken care of and so that's
where they can come to us wonderful and
heart disease is the number one killer
and what is it that you you believe that
kind of it's bringing people into the
center I mean you have the insurance you
you don't have the insurance and what
are the different type of the services
thank you that I'm trying to think of
the question the services that you guys
offer there we provide care for folks
that have heart heart attacks heart
surgery angioplasty stents heart failure
valve disease atrial fibrillation
different arrhythmias you see people
from the tri-county area not just Orange
County right all right yeah and you
expanded your services you start it with
just heart failure but now it's all
these other issues so that's hundreds of
people coming from all over for
different services and and how does how
do you get all that done well we're a
small clinic but we're able to see
people pretty regularly and you know it
doesn't take that much to be able to
provide that kind of care and this is
life-saving for your patients and for
your clients what do you hear from them
about how this has changed their lives
they just express gratitude and relief
because they they find out they have a
heart condition they may have been
discharged from the hospital and then be
so afraid because they didn't know where
to
get help right and do not have insurance
I mean these services are not cheap for
folks who don't have insurance so that
provides quite a service correct because
there's no charge to the patient so how
can you get into that system because I'm
sure there's a demand is there a
waitlist or how do you most of the
patients are referred from the hospitals
or community physicians some folks find
out about it in other ways and they
contact our office and we just need to
know have records so that we know that
what their heart condition is so that we
know how to take care of them and with
heart disease being the number one
killer of men and women worldwide folks
maybe who don't have insurance who don't
haven't had access to screenings what
would you advise them to do there are if
you go online there are places that do
have heart screenings and different
heart-healthy checking cholesterol is
that type of thing thank you there's
also the surfers hope in the area that
they can do general just you know I have
chest pain I may have had a EKG that was
abnormal so they need to look in those
places for that but if they have a
diagnosis if they have been treated and
they've lost the insurance then that's
where we come in and how long has this
program I know the clinic opened in 2006
and you only saw patients who had heart
failure but now I were saying all the
different things that you guys do now I
mean how is that you're looking at just
you know a little over ten years and
look how much you guys are accomplishing
amazing we've see probably thirty eight
thousand visits a year and 350 new
patients a month and or not new patients
but patient survived and fit we can we
can bring in patients that need that
caring there's a lot in this community
and there's a there's so many thing I
find that they've been struggling for a
year or two years and didn't know we
were there and to me that said that's
the hard part they don't have to
struggle if they know we're here yeah
and why do you think a lot of people
aren't aware of your services just
having the word not out in the right
yeah even as we've tried to get the word
out yeah but it's still you know
sometimes people just don't know right
of course all right well thank you so
much we appreciate you taking time out
to join us this morning thank you