Brainerd Dispatch: News | Brainerd, Minnesota | Brainerd Lakes Area News on brainerddispatch.com

Home > NEWS >

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

E-mail

Forums

Heart center opens at St. Joe's

By RENEE RICHARDSON

Senior Reporter

February seems an appropriate month to open a heart center.

The Brainerd Lakes Heart and Vascular Center, a $12 million project, opened its doors inside St. Joseph's Medical Center in north Brainerd a little more than a week ago. The heart center provides diagnostic testing, certain invasive procedures, education and awareness.

The expansion project included a renovation to the hospital's front lobby with fireplace, sitting areas, new reception desk and greater privacy for admissions. The heart center is just to the right of the hospital's main entrance. Tuesday staff was busy preparing for an open house. The heart center employs 20 now and there are still a few positions left to fill.

A catheterization lab allows the Brainerd Lakes Heart and Vascular Center to perform invasive cardiovascular diagnostics, such as an angiogram where dye is injected to find blocked arteries or placement of stents. Staff members Karmen Hamre (left), radiology technician, Jenny Gadacz, cardiovascular technician, and Dennis Logemann, radiology technician, are among the staff of about 20. Brainerd Dispatch/Steve Kohls

Inside the heart center, there are outpatient areas and services the medical center provided for years such as echocardiograms, images of the heart with sound waves, and stress tests - where images are taken after the heart is worked either through exertion on a treadmill or by chemicals.

About half of the money for the heart center went into equipment. New electrocardiogram carts lined the hallway this week. The digital and wireless EKGs allow information to be sent immediately to doctors. The center, constructed by Nor-Son Inc., is about 18,000 square feet with 11,000 of that new space in the addition. The project started with a $1 million donation and had a goal of raising $4 million in donations, and had nearly reached that goal by August, with hundreds of thousands coming in employee donations.

A hallway links the heart center to the emergency room.

The center provides full-service cardiac non-invasive diagnostic imaging, invasive and intervention cardiology, including emergency intervention and enhanced inpatient service. Pacemaker information may be sent in and downloaded and in the next few months, the center is looking at a dedicated pacemaker follow-up clinic.

St. Joseph's Medical Center renovations included a remodeled main entrance with a new information desk and translucent panels separating the space from the elevators behind the counter. New seating areas were created along with a fireplace in the lobby, which now has greater privacy for admissions. Brainerd Dispatch/Steve Kohls

Earth tones were used throughout. A waiting area includes a broad view of the Mississippi River and will have a public use computer along with flat-screen televisions. Donors to the heart center will be recognized nearby in a metal sculpture by Crosslake sculptor Jeff Kreitz.

A consultation room just off the waiting area provides a private setting to meet with patients or families. The clinic includes five exam rooms along with office space. Kevin Provost, director of cardiovascular and imaging services, said the goal is to have three Brainerd-based cardiologists on staff.

The catheterization lab allows the center to perform invasive cardiovascular diagnostics, such as an angiogram where dye is injected to find blocked arteries or put in stents or conduct diagnostics and intervention procedures with peripheral vascular studies. There is space for a second cath lab for future expansion.

Heart center tours

The Brainerd Lakes Heart and Vascular Center is hosting an open house from 5-7 p.m. Wednesday at St. Joseph's Medical Center in north Brainerd.

Tours, light refreshments, cardiopulmonary resuscitation and automated external defibrillator demonstrations and healthy cooking demonstrations are planned.

The heart center does not have an on-site surgical backup should complications arise. Provost said while that is available in St. Cloud or at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis, a cardiovascular surgeon is not standing by for every procedure so a period of time still exists. A protocol is in place with North Memorial Ambulance to drive patients to St. Cloud. Provost said it adds an element of time, but not as much as people may think. Provost pointed to a Mayo study in July of 2,500 patients comparing those in hospitals with surgical back-ups and those without. Provost said there wasn't a difference in patient outcomes.

"It's very safe, very effective," Provost said. "We wouldn't do it if it wasn't safe."

Kevin Provost, director of cardiovascular and imaging services at Brainerd Lakes Heart and Vascular Center, paused in one of the patient rooms inside the heart center. Brainerd Dispatch/Steve Kohls

Additionally, Provost said the center has hired experienced staff. The heart center has five patient rooms around a centrally located nurse's station.

Provost said about 250 to 300 patients were leaving Brainerd annually to go to the Twin Cities or St. Cloud for care that can now be done here. And Provost said with heart issues, minutes mean muscle. Another area the heart center wants to stress is public awareness of heart and vascular disease and ways to be healthy.

"We are going to save lives here," Provost said. "We're going to make a difference for the community."

RENEE RICHARDSON may be reached at renee.richardson@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5852.

Note: Comments are not edited and don't represent the views of The Brainerd Dispatch. Please read our posting rules in the terms of service policy. To report a post that may be inappropriate, click the triangle alert icon.