Chandler Regional Medical Center will serve its first patients in the newly completed $9.9 million expansion of its cardiac catheterization laboratory on Tuesday, Sept. 6.
“We started with a blank piece of paper; we didn’t have any existing building,” said William Orlowski, director of the hospital’s cardiovascular service line. “There will never be a piece of equipment that cannot fit in that room.”
As part of the Heart and Vascular Center’s invasive cardiology program, expanded lab positions Chandler Regional to meet the growing need for cardiac services in the community, said Orlowski. Since its inception in 2001, the lab has grown exponentially—from treating 147 patients in the first year to nearly 4,000 in 2010.
Of those, more than 1,000 cases were angioplasties to alleviate coronary blockages; another 300 were identified as requiring open heart surgery.
“Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States, killing a half million people each year,” said Patty White, president and CEO of Chandler Regional.
“Cardiology is one of our key services lines, and we’re addressing the community’s critical need for additional capacity in this area.”
The expanded lab is housed in a two-story addition on the southwest corner of the hospital contiguous with the existing lab. It includes two new catheterization labs, an additional nine private bed pre-/post- holding unit, an enhanced central monitoring station and other ancillary support infrastructure.
“In addition to providing for the increasing health care needs of our community, this expansion directly impacts the city’s economy,” said Orlowski. “The construction phase created 80 jobs while the expanded lab now adds 14 highly technical jobs.”
The nine private rooms provide overnight stays for cardiac patients, and medical staff can monitor all rooms at the same time via a computer network, Orlowski said.
“With these new rooms, we do the pre-, the post- and you can also stay longer – you don’t have to go to the hospital,” he said. “The beauty of that is, the nurses that care for you here overnight are cardiac catheters, whose only job is cath.”
There are obviously a lot of sick people at hospitals, Orlowski said, and naturally it’s better to keep healthier patients out of hospital beds.
“Why take a bed at a hospital for someone else who is realy sick and needs it,” he said. “The hospitals really put their money into the education and patient satisfaction, and quality of the procedure and care; we’re doing that with the creation of the shortstay units.”
And with the shortsay rooms, there are no designated visiting hours, allowing family members to visit at any time, Orlowski said.
“It’s all private families, and they are worried,” he said. “We try to remind ourselves to be a caring facility, where we want to incorporate family into the wellness of the patient, so we allow those family members to come in.”
