Community Connection: Cardiac Care in McKenzie County

Cardiology Program at McKenzie Health

by Dr. Richard Howard, Cardiologist

I am excited to join the team at McKenzie Health to help provide consistent, comprehensive cardiac care to McKenzie County and western North Dakota! I have been practicing cardiology for over 22 years and am board certified in internal medicine, general cardiology, interventional cardiology, and echocardiography, with certification in resistant hypertension. As McKenzie and surrounding counties continue to grow, the need to provide acute and ongoing cardiology care is more pressing than ever. The region sure has changed since 2006, when I was working in Bismarck, ND. That small critical access hospital and outpatient clinic in Watford City has been replaced by a modern state-of-the-art hospital with a growing specialty clinic. I am grateful for the opportunity to help develop a cardiology program with the goal of keeping our patients close to home for the care they need.

My roots are in the east, but my heart is in the Dakotas. My family still lives on our farm in Gettysburg, PA. I attended medical school in New York and my residency and fellowship training in Boston, MA, where I was also chief medical resident. I have practiced cardiology in many states, including Florida, Pennsylvania, Maryland, North and South Dakota. Like our former President, Teddy Roosevelt, I consider myself that boy from out east who discovered his real self in North Dakota. I practiced in North Dakota for 10 years and South Dakota for 5 years and still return to the plains several times per year for pheasant hunting and walleye fishing. While in Bismarck, I earned my Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Mary. With my experience and training, I helped start cardiology programs, cardiac cath labs, cardiac stent programs, and echocardiography programs in several states. When the opportunity knocked to help start a cardiology program in Watford City and neighboring areas, I had to answer.  

When I began working in Bismarck over 18 years ago, Dr. Ramage and his small staff were on the front lines of care and sent many patients east to MedCenter One and St. Alexis Medical Center with heart attacks, heart failure, and valvular heart problems. We would unclog the arteries, fix the valves, send them back west and try to see them a few times per year. Due to travel distances, some returned for care, some didn’t. Some did well over time, some didn’t.  Access to care in rural communities is an important and ongoing barrier to medical care. Our goal is to provide access to that same high level of care, close to home, and expand access to specialty care with the convenience everyone should be able to access. Thanks to foresight, leadership, community planning, and unprecedented access to resources, that day is dawning in western North Dakota.

At McKenzie Health our goal is to keep you close to home for your cardiology care. We treat all sorts of heart problems, including evaluation of chest pain, shortness of breath, heart rhythm problems, or are here if you have a strong family history of heart disease and need a heart checkup. If your company needs a heart evaluation for work, we can provide it. If you have stents in your heart, bypass surgery, valve problems, we can help. If you need or have a pacemaker in your heart or other rhythm issues, you can see us first. Over time the services we provide will continue to expand, the goal being to provide you with exceptional state-of-the-art cardiac care close to home. If you have seen a cardiologist previously or are new to the field of cardiology and need an evaluation, we look forward to meeting you and helping you with all of the needs for your heart. I, along with all of the staff here at McKenzie Health, look forward to meeting you. You are our neighbors, you are family, and we can’t wait to help care for you.