The Christ Hospital Appoints New Heart & Vascular Emergency Cardiac Care Specialist

The Christ Hospital Health Network Heart & Vascular Team is pleased to welcome Kari Gorder, MD, newly appointed emergency cardiac care specialist and intensivist.

The Christ Hospital Health Network Heart & Vascular Team is pleased to welcome Kari Gorder, MD, newly appointed emergency cardiac care specialist and intensivist.

“I am delighted to announce the addition to The Christ Hospital and Lindner Center staff of Dr. Kari Gorder,” says Dr. Timothy D. Smith, MD, FACC, FSCAI, and director of the Cardiovascular ICU at The Christ Hospital. “Dr. Gorder is a renowned expert in emergency medicine and critical care.”

“I was brought in to help continue to elevate the standard of cardiac health care at The Christ Hospital,” says Dr. Gorder, who is passionate about providing the best care for patients. “I’m thrilled to join this world-renowned team.”

Board certified in Emergency Medicine, Dr. Gorder completed her residency in Emergency Medicine at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, where she served as Chief Resident and spent two additional years in a dedicated Critical Care Fellowship. Her recent experience includes serving as a resident physician to a regional police SWAT team and as assistant medical director for two regional fire companies.

Dr. Gorder says Heart disease remains the number one killer in the United States, but more than 85 million Americans live more than an hour’s drive from a highly skilled emergency care center.

“The critical issue is how quickly patients are transported to receive appropriate care,” she says. “I’ve had experiences when I realized that if a patient got to us a little bit faster, maybe their results would have been different. When you have a blocked artery in your heart, or you have a cardiac arrest, time really matters.”

She is particularly enthusiastic about Christ LifeFlight, the Hospital’s new dedicated rotor-wing helicopter. As an experienced helicopter emergency medical services (HEMS) flight physician, she knows that Christ LifeFlight means faster cardiac interventions. One of these interventions is ECMO, or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, which Dr. Gorder says is the highest degree of support a patient can be offered. As Dr. Smith explains, “ECMO circulates blood through a machine outside of the body to provide oxygen when the patient’s heart and lungs can’t get the job done. It can be a bridge to recovery or to more advanced therapies.” The Christ Hospital has one of fastest growing ECMO programs in the country, and critically ill patients in cardiac shock are being flown into The Christ Hospital from all over the region.

Dr. Gorder has flown many times with helicopter EMS teams and knows how essential it is to get patients to medical care as quickly as possible. To support this goal, she will coordinate transport for patients with the Christ LifeFlight teams, regional EMS departments, the Christ Hospital ER, and the Hospital’s cardiovascular ICU, which is her home base.

“We have world-renowned heart specialists at the Christ Hospital, and, for the first time, we can get patients here faster to receive critical care from our expert team.”

She believes cardiac ICU care really comes down to teamwork and is excited to be with such talented people who work extremely well together. “Ultimately, it’s always about having the right patient in the right place with the right people at the right time. For patients who have severe cardiac emergencies in the Cincinnati region, the Christ Hospital is definitely the right place to be.”

About The Christ Hospital Health Network: The Christ Hospital Health Network is an acute care hospital located in Mt. Auburn, with five ambulatory centers and 181 neighborhood offices conveniently located throughout the Greater Cincinnati area. Its mission is to improve the health of the community and to create patient value by providing exceptional outcomes, affordable care, and the finest experiences. Led by the region’s Most Preferred Hospital (National Research Corporation) for 20 consecutive years, the Network is dedicated to transforming care by delivering integrated, individualized healthcare and wellness services through its comprehensive physician network and advanced specialty services. The Christ Hospital is among only 6% of hospitals in the nation to be awarded Magnet recognition for nursing excellence and is ranked among the top 5% of hospitals in the country for patient satisfaction. For more than 125 years, The Christ Hospital has provided compassionate care to all those it serves.