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Atlanta Cardiology Group joins Piedmont Heart Institute
When he turned 55, he started coming up to the mountains every other week and began curtailing his Augusta practice. "It was good mental therapy for me spending more time up here," Kelley told me. The next year he moved his wife and two children to the mountains and started the children in school. When he turned 58, he closed his practice in Augusta and moved back himself full-time. Kelley is father of six children, four of whom are grown. His oldest child, Christy is a First Grade teacher at Hayesville; he has a son (John), who is a realtor in Winston-Salem and two other sons who are in the entertainment business: Josh is a singer and song writer in Los Angeles and Charles, who is also a singer, song writer in Nashville. Kelley's two youngest children Laura Kathrine (16) and Caroline (12) both attend school at Hayesville. Kelley views his move "back home" as an opportunity to leave a legacy. "All of us want to leave a legacy, something beyond ourselves," he told me. Kelley feels he can expand a practice in the mountains to enhance cardiac and vascular care in a regional way. "We are working to provide a seamless entry into the medical care system," he said. "We can't do open-heart surgery or provide congenital care locally, we have to refer it to larger teritary hospitals, but we can provide an ease of entry for persons requiring speciality care." In November, the Atlanta Cardiology Group affiliated itself with Piedmont Healthcare as part of the Piedmont Heart Institute. The institute maintains offices across Georgia. The Piedmont Heart Institute (PHI) is the first of its kind affiliated with a community hospital system in greater Atlanta. It's express purpose is to provide a new and innovative model to facilitate and enhance the quality of cardiovascular care for the community. Kelley said he and the other physicians of the Atlanta Cardiology Group are eager about the opportunity to be a part of the Institute because it will create a platform through which they can provide enhanced care and services for their patients. Piedmont was one of Georgia's first hospitals to establish a dedicated coronary care unit (CCU), the first to hire a full-time director of community CCU, and one of the first in the country to use telemetry monitors throughout the hospital. Piedmont has successfully developed cardiac catheterization, interventional cardiology, comprehensive electrophysiology and arrhythmia services, advanced heart failure management, open-heart surgery and peripheral vascular services. The Atlanta Cardiology Group have offices in both Blairsville and Hiawassee and are available to see patients five days a week. Dr. Kelley works three of those days, and he has two other cardiologist who work at the practice oneday a week, each. Dr. Kelley says 90 percent of the diagnostic work for his patients can be done from his local office. "I can look at the cardiac test on my computer here and make evaluations before the patient arrives at the hospital," Kelley said. He cited a case in which a patient had shown symptoms threatening a heart attack. The patient was seen at the emergency room, transported to Piedmont via helicopter, where he underwent tests at the catheterization lab and discovered to have 90 percent blockage. A stent was implanted and the patient back home a short time later. Kelley marvels at the advancement of medical technology; however, he says nothing can replace the human component of an experienced doctor, who can take the detailed information and plug it in using his or her experience.
At the conclusion of our interview, Dr. Kelley asked a rhetorical question. What is our purpose in life?" he asked. Then answering, he said, "Is it not first to serve God and then to relieve the suffering of our fellow men."
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