On Aug. 15, Cardiovascular Institute of the South (CIS) celebrated 39 years of providing cardiovascular care to patients in south Louisiana and Mississippi.
Since Craig Walker, MD, started the practice in 1983, CIS has grown to include 21 clinics and 1,150 team members, 65 physicians, nine telecardiology sites, 16 partner hospitals, and management services reaching to the suburbs of Chicago. The practice originated in Houma, expanded to Thibodaux and Morgan City, and then north to Lafayette, Opelousas, and New Iberia. CIS continued to expand to the Baton Rouge area and the New Orleans area, and opened in Meridian, Miss. in 2016. CIS now has multiple clinics in Acadiana, the Capital Region, the New Orleans region, and the tri-parish area.
CIS treats all aspects of cardiovascular health, with the extensions of the CIS Leg & Vein Center and the CIS Ambulatory Surgery Center in Gray, La., and by offering services such as a smoking cessation program, intensive cardiac rehab, and a 24/7 Virtual Care Center. On average per month, CIS sees nearly 23,000 patients in clinic and more than 5,000 hospital visits company wide.
“When I came to Houma, my thought was to deliver state-of-the-art cardiovascular care in the area where I grew up,” said Walker. “I never dreamed it would have grown to what it is today.”