NOW A CHOICE CLOSE TO HOME: BOTH LOCAL HOSPITALS OFFER HEART SURGERY

Southeast Missouri heart surgery patients who wish to stay close to home for medical treatment now have a choice.

Both Southeast Missouri Hospital and St. Francis Medical Center offer a wide spectrum of cardiovascular services, including open heart surgery.

The surgery has been done at Southeast Missouri Hospital since October 1984.

Surgeons at St. Francis performed the first heart surgery at that medical center on April 10, 1991.

Surgeons at Southeast Missouri Hospital's Regional Heart Center did 252 open heart surgeries in 1991. In 1990, surgeons did 268 procedures, said James W. Wente, Southeast administrator.

"The program at St. Francis has had some impact on us," Wente said.

He said Southeast has the capacity to handle 400 open heart surgery cases each year.

Dr. Louis Ostrow, heart surgeon at The Heart Institute at St. Francis, said, "In the 10 months since heart surgery began at the medical center the total number of cases is well above what was projected for the entire first year.

"The numbers compare favorably with figures from other heart programs during their initial year."

He declined to give a specific number of surgeries performed.

John Fidler, St. Francis president, said, "We've been very committed for a long time to developing an active heart surgery program. We feel two strong programs in this area will make this more of a regional center.

"There is no reason to refer patients to St. Louis or Memphis when they can be cared for closer to home," Fidler said.

Linda Heitman, clinical nurse specialist and Southeast Regional Heart Center coordinator, said while open heart surgery often captures much attention, the cardiac program at Southeast offers a continuum of services beginning with education for children through all phases of cardiac care.

"People concentrate on open heart surgery and angioplasty," Heitman said. "But there are a wide variety of treatment modalities. Many are available right here in Cape Girardeau without going out of the area.

"We're a looking at a comprehensive heart program," Heitman said, "from the beginning of prevention through treatment.

"One of the things we feel is important is to encourage public awareness of the choices of treatment," she said. "There are a variety of treatment modalities for a variety of cardiac problems.

"Some patients are candidates for surgery," she said. "Some may require medical management of cardiac problem; the latest in drug therapies; angioplasty; pacemaker insertion There are all kinds of treatments in addition to open heart surgery.

"And we feel confident that in Cape Girardeau patients are offered that highest quality of care, whatever their diagnosis."

She believes services offered here compare favorably with similar services provided at hospitals in St. Louis and Memphis.

"And we have a medical community that is capable to meet the challenges as presented to them."

Since cardiovascular disease is one of the nation's top health care problem, Heitman said new advances are being made all the time.

"We need to stay current and up to date," she said. "The medical community here is aware of this fact and have always been very capable of providing state-of-the-art care."

For example, this past year Southeast began use of a new excimer laser for heart surgery. The laser removes plaque in arteries. "It's a new technology," Heitman said. "And Cape Girardeau was one of the first places to offer it."

She said a comprehensive heart program is a team effort. "In order to have a really capable heart team, it takes a variety of health care professionals who are all highly skilled. We have physicians, nurses, respiratory therapists, laboratory technicians, x-ray technicians. "It's never just one person."

The team includes former heart patients through the hospital's Mended Hearts organization. Former patients, who have been trained, visit patients awaiting surgery to allay fears and answer questions from a patient's perspective.

The Mended Hearts club meets monthly and is open to individuals with cardiac problems.

"People want to know more about their health care," Heitman said. "It's extremely important to make sure we provide them with valid, current information so they can make choices about health care."

"We feel a responsibility to provide education to the public about what their choices are," she said.

Heitman said the hospital offers education programs about cardiac risk factors for both adults and children.

"One of the things we did was the creation of a book for school age children dealing with cardiac risks," Heitman said. "We hope they will start to adopt a healthy lifestyle at an early age."

She said public education programs are also provided for adults, providing information about risk factors and also the signs and symptoms of a heart attack.

"We want to remind them of the important of modifying risk factors and modifying their lifestyles," she said. "Our goal is to promote the highest quality of life possible."

"We are constantly looking at our program and ways to make it better," Heitman said. "We want to ensure our heart team is truly the best it can be."

Rosemary Bishop, director of cardiovascular services at St. Francis Medical Center, said the addition of open heart surgery has meant the growth of all other cardiovascular services and expansion of the medical center.

The Heart Institute at St. Francis is now under construction. The primary purpose of the new construction is to create additional space is for outpatient non-invasive cardiology testing, Bishop said.

Specialists will be doing stress testing and vascular testing and other specialized testing connected with the heart, Bishop said.

A waiting room for the Heart Institute and a physicians' consultation room is also included in the addition.

Construction is about 50 percent complete. "We are ahead of schedule," Bishop said.

"Non-invasive testing is really growing, both in technology and in numbers," she said. "And because the tests are non-invasive, they can be done on an outpatient basis."

"Our cath. lab has seen a 26 percent increase this fiscal year from last," Bishop said. "That's very exciting.

"We have expanded a few of our services. Our vascular lab is now doing color Doppler imaging," Bishop said. Coronary angioplasty is also performed at St. Francis thanks to the addition of the heart surgery program.

Also in conjunction with the creation of the Heart Institute, the medical center has begun presenting professional symposiums related to heart surgery and cardiac testing.

A newsletter has also been sent to about 500 area physicians explaining the services now available at St. Francis.

"We are trying to inform physicians about the kinds of tests they can order and what the test results will provide," Bishop said. "The technology is really amazing."