St. Mary?s Celebrates A Year Of Heart Care
by February 17, 2003 12:00 am 65 views
St. Mary’s Hospital in Rogers will celebrate one year of heart care Feb. 19 by tripling the number of heart surgeries the hospital expected to perform its first year. Dr. Jeffrey Werner, vice president of cardiovascular services, said a week before the anniversary that 149 surgeries had been performed and several were scheduled before the 19th.
The care patients receive who have cardiovascular disease or suspected cardiovascular disease “is night and day” compared to what it was before St. Mary’s expanded its cardiology care, Werner said. Previously, patients were stabilized and sent to a hospital that could perform cardiac catherization and other tests. Now St. Mary’s handles the diagnosis and has a full surgical unit for open heart surgeries that has made all the difference.
Werner said he’s been impressed with how enthusiastic the hospital staff has been about learning new skills in order to offer the new services and at how skilled they’ve become. They’ve been more than willing to take on difficult cases and “have not held back at all,” he said.
St. Mary’s is trying to evaluate the future of cardiac care so that the needed facilities are incorporated in its plans for a new hospital facility along Interstate 540.