In just a few days, PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center will be able to treat some of the area’s most complex heart and vascular patients in a single surgical suite.
The new suite will enable surgeons to perform both minimally invasive procedures, such as placing stents in the heart, and major surgical procedures, such as open-heart surgery, in one place, rather than transferring the patient from a catheterization lab to an operating room.
“We are a comprehensive heart and vascular program. We take care of the sickest people in all of Southwest Washington,” said Dr. Shaun Harper, medical director of the Heart and Vascular Center. “Having this room allows us to extend our capabilities even further.”
“It’s a great advance for the hospital and the heart and vascular program,” he added.
The hospital had a ceremony Tuesday afternoon to bless the new Heart and Vascular Center Hybrid Catheterization Surgical Suite. The state-of-the-art catheterization lab will open for the first surgery Monday.
“There is one organ we cannot live without, that, if it is not beating, we will die: the heart,” said the Rev. Mary Katherine Lookingbill, who performed the blessing and is the manager of spiritual care at PeaceHealth Southwest.
“We have state-of-the-art technology to keep our heart beating,” she said.
The hospital funded the $2.1 million project with help from the PeaceHealth Southwest Foundation and the generosity of the community, said Sy Johnson, chief executive officer of PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center.
“It’s a community effort,” Johnson said.
The Foundation raised $522,000 for the new suite with a 2013 campaign, The Beat Goes On — HeArts of Clark County. Thirty 6-foot-tall fiberglass heart statues, each featuring the work of local artists, were displayed across Vancouver before being auctioned at a gala in September 2013. Money from the auction, ticket sales, business sponsorships and additional donations were used to cover nearly a quarter of the cost of the new suite.
“Without the foundation, this would have taken many more years to build,” Harper said.
Instead, the hospital is preparing to open the first suite of its kind in Southwest Washington, he said.
The hybrid cath lab will allow surgeons to safely perform minimally invasive procedures, knowing they are equipped to transition to open surgery should the need arise, Harper said. The lab also has the technology to provide surgeons with multiple types of images while they’re operating, he said.
“The more we can do their procedures without a full open-heart or open-abdomen procedure, the better it is for them,” Harper said. “A room like this allows us to treat the most complex heart and vascular procedures.”
