INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — Indian River Medical Center launching wide array of new programs in 2013. The Indian River Medical Center will launch a number of new programs and services in the coming year, including expansion of its extensive cardiac-care programs.
The new surgical intensive care unit opening in February at the Indian River Medical Center will allow patients to recuperate from all type of surgery – including cardiac, orthopedic, neuro and general surgeries – surrounded by specialized equipment, services and staff.
The hospital broke ground on the $15-million Sheriden Intensive Care Unit and recovery room in November 2011
The public will get a chance to tour the 14-bed intensive care unit and the 26-bed recovery room on Feb. 3 from 1-3 p.m., according to hospital spokeswoman Betsy Whisman.
The new surgical intensive care center, which opens about six years after the hospital unveiled its Heart Center, was built entirely with donations.
Not only is the hospital’s heart program affiliated with Duke University, the Society of Thoracic Surgeons last week again awarded the hospital three stars – the society’s highest rating – for cardiac surgery outcomes.
IRMC is only one of eight hospitals in the state to earn that designation, said Whisman.
The center will primarily be for valve replacement and aneurism repair but also for more invasive procedures requiring longer recovery times and follow-up care. An aneurism is caused when an artery is stretched out, forming a large bubble whose thinning walls threaten to burst. A large stent is inserted to fit above and below the aneurism, and over time the thin walls “scar down” to coat and fortify the stent.
The center and other programs are aimed at improving both patient care and meeting the health needs of residents. With Indian River County’s aging population and large number of retirees, the Heart Center and other programs fill a need.
“We’re always looking ahead to the next thing the community needs,” said Dr. Cary L. Stowe, medical director of cardiovascular surgical services at Indian River Medical Center.
In looking at medical needs, Stowe was instrumental in getting funding to bring noninvasive heart valve replacement to the area with a target date of spring or summer.
Currently, surgeons must go in through open heart surgery or through a traditional sternotomy incision or through a minimally invasive incision in the upper or lower chest to gain access for valve replacement.
A new Heart Valve Clinic will open on Jan. 17 to deal with advanced treatment of heart disease. Patients can refer themselves to the clinic or they can be referred by their physician or cardiologist.
According to Jason Nance, the hospital’s director of the center’s cardiovascular services, the goal of the clinic is to shorten the time it takes for patient appointments with doctors and testing. He said the current system often requires multiple doctors’ visits and tests before a treatment plan can be developed.
With the Heart Value Clinic, a patient will meet with a center cardiologist who will arrange tests such as a stress test, CT scan or 3D trans esophageal echo. The tests will be performed the same day as the patient’s appointment and the cardiologist will review the test results on the same day. If surgery is advised, a surgeon also will meet with the patient on the same day.
“This is a patient-centered focus to valve disease,” said Nance. He said patients will often leave with a treatment plan at the end of their day of tests and doctors’ meetings.
Nance also stressed that “not everyone is going to need surgery.”
“Over half of our heart surgeries do involve a valve procedure,” said Nance. Those procedures, he added, are minimally invasive and are done with small incisions between the ribs.
Patients recover faster, said Nance, experience less pain, lose less blood and get home faster. “There’s much less discomfort for the patient,” Nance said.
In a related heart health-care area, representatives of the hospital’s Heart Failure Management Clinic have been asked by Duke University, which is affiliated with the Heart Center, to present a program on how that operation has improved patient care and what it has learned in the last year when it comes to the continuing care of patients with heart failure.
Nance said heart failure is a disease that taxes both the health-care system and patients. The goal of the clinic is to keep heart patients healthy, out of the hospital and at home with their families.
Patients enrolled in the program meet with a nurse/practitioner or cardiologist Dr. Richard Moore.
Staff is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week to talk with patients. “They can call the clinic first rather than take a trip to the ER,” said Nance.
Duke is interested in the program, said Nance, because it’s a great trend in community medicine. In the clinic’s first year, he said, there has been a dramatic reduction in hospital re-admission rates for heart patients.
Nurse-practitioner Pat Draper said that of the 66 active patients in the program only 1.5 percent of them have been readmitted to the hospital. That’s a dramatic decline from the national average of 20 percent.
“I believe the clinic is making a difference,” Draper said. “They are a fragile patient population.”
The 24/7 availability of having someone to talk to is important, Draper said, because heart failure patients are typically anxious when they develop problems and that only “makes things worse.”
The medical center is also taking a similar pro-active approach with outpatient services which will be located at the rear of the hospital near the emergency room.
Visitors will continue to enter through the main lobby, Whisman said. However, patients requiring X-rays, chemotherapy treatment, infection therapy, or a MRI will go through outpatient services.
That facility will open in March.
IRMC heart program
The heart program includes:
■ Two cath labs that have performed interventional heart procedures since 2006, including balloon angioplasty and stenting, and most recently stenting through the wrist rather than traditional groin access as first preference
■ Three-star (highest rating) cardiac surgery program, one of only eight hospitals in Florida to earn the Society of Thoracic Surgeons’ top rating. Only hospital in St. Lucie, Indian River, Brevard Counties to earn the top rating.
■ Heart Failure Management Clinic.
■ Heart Valve Clinic (opening Jan. 17.)