SCH Open Heart Program Given Permanent Approval

Approval was unanimously granted by the Illinois Health Facility Planning Board. "The permanence status designation is the direct result of a wonderful team effort on the part of all employees, physicians, volunteers, community members and board leadership over the past 30 months," says Mark Newton, president/CEO of the Hospital.

The Certificate of Need for the open-heart program was granted on November 18, 1999. Swedish Covenant Hospital performed its first open-heart surgery on July 7, 2000, and its first Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI) on August 23, 2000 To date, the hospital has successfully completed 336 open heart procedures, 448 interventional catheterizations and 2,236 diagnostic cardiac catheterizations. "The outcomes for this program have exceeded not only national benchmarks for mortality and morbidity, they also went above and beyond what prior research had indicated at the beginning of the program," explains Newton. "Swedish Covenant Hospital takes great pride in being an official 'heart-healthy' institution."

To be granted permanence by the state, the hospital was required to maintain sufficient volume and exceed quality benchmarks set by American College of Cardiology and the Society of Thoracic Surgery. According to Corinne Murphy-Hines, director of Cardiology Services, "While volumes are an important aspect of the open heart and interventional cardiology program, our primary emphasis has been on quality outcomes and benchmarking our results against national standards. Therefore, our commitment to the Planning Board was to regularly report not only on volumes, but also on quality for all of our cases."

The availability of a high-quality open-heart program on Chicago's north side is critical, Newton says. Almost 40 percent of inpatients at Swedish Covenant Hospital have a cardiology diagnosis, and the number of cardiac-related emergency room visits continues to grow, some requiring immediate access to cardiac services. During the past year, 77 emergency department patients suffered acute myocardial infarctions, or heart attacks, and required emergent catheterizations. Permanent status allows the hospital to move forward with resources for growth in cardiovascular services and helps solidify Swedish Covenant Hospital's commitment to the community and the medical staff, ensuring that the cardiac program will be here in the future.

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