The Stakes of Heart Health
Day in and day out, heart care touches nearly every corner at LMH Health. As Dr. Christina Salazar puts it, it “touches the entire health system”, from the Emergency Department to the cath lab and at-home services.
That reach reflects a sobering reality. Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States, and our community is not immune to this statistic. Heart failure is the second most common reason for hospitalization, and as the communities LMH Health serves continue to grow and their population ages, the demands on its cardiac care infrastructure will only deepen.
LMH Health has been meeting these demands for years. But meeting them is no longer enough; it is time to get ahead of them.
What Our Community Already Has and What It Deserves
It would be easier, said Dr. Shelly Kortkamp, president and CEO of LMH Health, to describe what LMH Health doesn’t do than what it does. The hospital’s cardiac program is already remarkably comprehensive for a community its size.
LMH earned Heart Failure Accreditation from the American College of Cardiology in June 2024, recognizing its commitment to providing high-quality, evidence-based care. Except for open-heart surgery and some vascular procedures, virtually everything a heart patient needs can be found right here at LMH Health, and that volume has been growing steadily.
But growth has a way of exposing limits.
“We’ve honestly outgrown the cardiac clinic space,” said Earl Reineman, major gifts and planned giving manager for the LMH Health Foundation. “To keep growing and offer the latest, most cutting-edge services, we have to look down the road and take steps now for the better health of the communities we serve.”
Those steps are now well underway. LMH Health is expanding and renovating its Heart Center, a project that will transform how cardiac care is delivered in the community, not by starting over, but by bringing everything together.
The Same Great Care, All Under One Roof
The vision for the Heart Center is simple: a patient should be able to receive every aspect of their cardiac care in a single, cohesive, patient-focused space.
Right now, that isn’t always the case. Appointments are scattered across departments. Specialists are in different wings. The experience of navigating a health system while you’re sick, or scared, or both, can feel like being handed off from one stranger to the next. Dr. Kortkamp describes the goal plainly: patients should be “carried through their needs,” not “dropped and picked up by the next clinic.”
The new Heart Center will make that possible. From routine care and nutrition counseling to cardiac catheterization, everything will occur under one roof. Patients will find their care teams steps apart rather than floors or buildings away. The result, Dr. Kortkamp said, will be “a singular healing environment: full service, full circle.”
For staff, the change is equally meaningful. “A place where colleagues can be found easily,” she explains, “and where that collaborative, united effort can be made.” When you’re caring for someone’s heart, proximity matters, but additionally, how a patient feels walking into their care facility is important. And the space itself was designed with that in mind.
Early in the planning process, patients were surveyed about what kind of environment would make them feel at ease. Architects used that input and the result will be a facility built not just for efficiency, but for the emotional reality of what it means to receive cardiac care.
“It matters what patients feel when they come in,” said Dr. Salazar. “The color, the modernization of the space, it affects how we feel walking into an environment. It doesn’t change how you are cared for, but it adds to an experience that can be scary or life-altering.
Two Cath Labs. One Bigger Impact.
Of all the additions the expansion brings, one stands out for its clinical urgency: a second cardiac catheterization lab.
Today, LMH Health operates a single cath lab. On most days, that’s enough. But medicine doesn’t operate on most days; it operates every day, including the ones that don’t go as planned.
“There’s always the risk that when one patient is in the cath lab, another patient needs to be,” Dr. Kortkamp explained.
When that happens, the second patient may need to be transferred to another facility. In cardiac care, that’s not merely inconvenient. It’s potentially catastrophic.
“Time equals heart muscle.” Every minute without intervention is muscle lost. The second cath lab helps reduce risk. It also does something more: it opens the door to procedures and services that a single lab simply cannot accommodate. Longer cases, more complex interventions and expanded subspecialty offerings, including electrophysiology and vascular services, become possible in ways they weren’t before.
Rebecca Smith, executive director of the LMH Health Foundation, frames it simply. “Care is better when it’s closer to home, and research backs that up.”
For patients who currently drive to Kansas City or beyond for specialized cardiac procedures, the expanded Heart Center is an invitation to stay.
An Experience with You in Mind
There is a unique experience that happens when you walk into a building that was built for you. Dr. Salazar has thought carefully about this.
“You notice how a space feels, whether it’s a business or a personal interaction,” she said. “It matters to patients how we care about what we are doing, and that shows in how we invest in our practice and our facilities.”
A modern, thoughtfully designed Heart Center does more than improve workflows. It tells every patient who enters that they’ve chosen care in a health system that takes them seriously. It also sends a signal to the entire medical team that this organization believes in the work you do.
“When a health system invests in itself,” Dr. Salazar said, “that is attractive. To providers, to patients and to the community.”
To Our Incredible Donors, Thank You
A project of this scale, $25 million in total, does not happen without donors who wholeheartedly believe in it. To date, $8 million has been raised, including a $5 million landmark gift from Harry and Cindy Herington, the second largest in the history of the LMH Health Foundation and the hospital itself.
“Harry and Cindy felt a personal connection to this project,” Reineman said. “They believe deeply that LMH needs to remain on the cutting edge of cardiac care.”
Smith described the impact of that gift in terms that go beyond the dollar amount. “It was the signal that this is different. A $25 million project is notable. The Herington’s gift was huge, and what it said to everyone who will be impacted by heart care was, ‘this is real, and it’s worth believing in.’”
Other donors followed, and now a new Heart Center is rising from that belief. Dr. Kortkamp is clear-eyed about what this means.
“The money we have at LMH Health is not our money, it’s the community’s healthcare dollar. The stewardship of that trust is not taken lightly, and neither is the gratitude,” she said. “Because of the extraordinary generosity of our donors, we can provide this level of service to the communities we serve.”
This is not a first for LMH. The LMH Health Cancer Center, a facility offering services rarely found in a hospital of this size, exists for the same reason.
“The generosity of our donors makes great things happen at LMH Health,” Smith said. “The Cancer Center is a powerful proof of that.”
The Heart Center is the next chapter in that story.
Where to Go While We Grow
There is a practical question behind this ambition: what happens to patients while the renovation is underway? Dr. Kortkamp metaphorically said, “We’re building this plane while flying it.” Services will not stop. Not for a day.
“We liken it to the game of Tetris,” she said, fitting everything just right, moving pieces in the right order, so that care is never disrupted. Physical therapy will relocate to an expanded and renovated space at 6th and Maine. Lawrence Endocrinology has moved to a new space at the West Campus. Other departments have shifted to create the space needed for construction to proceed.
During the renovation, the Heart Center will operate out of the Reed Building at 404 Maine, just across the street from the Main Campus, for about one year before returning to the newly completed space.
The commitment is straightforward: same team, same quality, same care. Just a temporary new address.
Built for Lifelong Care, Close to Home
Each step of this project is an important part of strengthening the health system and advancing care for the communities we serve. On a deeper level, Dr. Salazar shared why cardiovascular care remains so urgent.
“As area communities age and heart disease becomes part of more people’s stories, helping patients stay out of the hospital, remain active and stay stable benefits everyone,” she said.
Not all heart disease is preventable. Some patients arrive with genetics working against them, with conditions diagnosed long before they ever meet a cardiologist at LMH Health. What matters, Dr. Salazar said, is being there for those important moments. Being present. Being ready. That is what the new Heart Center is built to do.
“We have been here for you and we care,” she said. “That is why we are investing. That is why we continue being here and we want to care for you and your loved ones for generations.”
Our communities are taking this promise seriously and helping fund the future, brick by brick. For more information about the LMH Health Heart Center expansion or to support the campaign, visit lmh.org/donate or contact Earl Reineman at the LMH Health Foundation today at 785-505-3317 or by email at earl.reineman@lmh.org.
Jessica Thomas is a Lawrence-based freelance writer covering health, wellness and community topics for LMH Health.
