Philanthropy helps meet the need for cardiovascular services in West Central Indiana

Thanks to philanthropic support that pays IU Health team members for time spent learning, patients with heart concerns are no longer waiting months to be tested. Instead, philanthropy is helping to fill open tech jobs and getting patients in the door more quickly.

“We had patients who waited two or three months to get an echocardiogram. If you’re a candidate for open heart surgery, that’s not good,” said Veronica Siegle, regional human resources director at IU Health. “Getting an echocardiogram is often the first step to more significant cardiovascular procedures. Until we launched the echo tech program, we had positions open for more than five years.”

Echo tech training focuses on how to use imaging technology and ultrasound equipment to produce images of the heart. “Our team lead created and crafted the curriculum based on guidelines provided by Cardiovascular Credentialing International (CCI),” said Denise Brock, a senior consultant in human resources at IU Health. “We did it in quarters. They had to pass quizzes every two weeks and an exam at the end of each quarter to move on.”

Thanks to funds from IU Health Foundation donors, team members who pursued the echo tech certification were able to maintain their salary levels while they studied and received on-the-job training.

The program was aggressive. Of the four participants, two completed the program and are now working as certified echo cardiac technologists. The two who dropped out remain IU Health team members.

“Since the program launched, we’ve filled all of our echo tech positions,” Siegle said. “We’re fully staffed at both of our critical access hospitals, and we’re able to have the Lafayette campus open seven days a week. Another one of our priorities is decreasing the length of stays in our hospital, and filling these positions contributes to that.”

“I’m so grateful for this program,” said Megan Barrett, echo cardiac technologist and registered respiratory therapist with IU Health. “I found a school that offered something similar. It came with a hefty price tag, didn’t offer financial aid, and I never would’ve been able to work full time while completing the program. Without this opportunity at IU Health, I never would’ve taken the leap.”