Sunday, October 25, 2009

Lower Keys Medical Center is wrapping up a $3 million capital project that expands the scope of services available at the hospital and hopefully will decrease Emergency Room wait time.

The hospital has almost completed work on its new cardiac catheterization lab, which will decrease the number of people having to travel to Miami for certain diagnostic heart tests.

Hospital CEO Nicki Will said the facility was sending more than 250 patients a year to Miami for cardiac catheterization, a procedure that examines blood flow to the heart and tests how well the heart is pumping.

"We see a lot of cardiac disease in our community," she said. "There's not any cardiac cath being done in the Keys right now. ... We're able to provide services here that the community has not provided before."

Will said she can sympathize with families who have to make the trek to Miami for these diagnostic tests because her husband had to go through the process in September.

"Going through it myself, I can understand what they're going through," she said of the inconvenience of driving three or more hours and incurring the cost to travel and stay out of town. "It's very difficult on the patient and the family."

During the cardiac catheterization procedure, a doctor inserts a thin plastic tube into an artery or vein in the arm or leg and advances it to the chambers of the heart or into the coronary arteries, according to the America Heart Association Web site. The test can measure blood pressure within the heart and how much oxygen is in the blood. It's also used to get information about the pumping ability of the heart muscle.

The lab also will be used for coronary angiographies, an X-ray examination of the heart taken by injecting dye into the heart's arteries, Will said.

Once a diagnosis is made, some patients still will have to travel to other facilities for treatment, such as angioplasty, stents or open heart surgery.

A new cardiology specialist will join the hospital after the holidays.

The lab will be an additional asset for the interventional radiologist the hospital added last year. Dr. Sandy Shultz can diagnose and treat a wide range of diseases and conditions using minimally invasive techniques by image guidance.

"He's been able to provide services in Key West that people before had to go through the mainland for," Will said.

The new cath lab utilizes space that was once part of the hospital's Emergency Room -- another area the hospital wanted to improve upon. Patient surveys have indicated that people were unhappy with some aspects of their experience in the Emergency Room, Will said.

"They felt we could improve wait time and the appearance of the department," she said.

As a result, Lower Keys Medical Center turned its former board room into a new Emergency Room wing with five additional beds, bringing its total number of beds to 13.

"Right now, if we're busy, patients sometimes are kept in the hallways," she said. "This should help alleviate that."

The entire Emergency Room has been outfitted with new beds and a nurse call system. Additional renovations to the main Emergency Department are planned in 2010.

"We're currently in the budgeting process, so we're looking at what equipment we need," Will said.

The cath lab and expanded Emergency Room are just two of the capital investments the hospital has made in the past year. This summer, it installed an i-Suite Operating Room system, a high-definition operating room that incorporates the latest technology into its endoscopic operating room. The hospital says the system is the only one located south of Tampa. The main advantages of the equipment are the advanced cameras and lighting, according to orthopedic surgeon Dr. Robert Loeffler.

"With this technology, the surgeon is able to see a much larger surgical field of view in extreme high definition," he said. "This allows for a more precise and quicker surgery."

More procedures can be done endoscopically as a result, he said.

"For example, with shoulder surgeries, you have to get into a very tight space. With these highly accurate HD digital cameras, you can see and maneuver every angle in the tight space with the arthroscope much more precisely," he said. "This way you minimize the bleeding and swelling."

The hospital also is the first in the state to use an Evotech sterilization system, said hospital Marketing Director Randy Detrick. The technology is the first commercially available system in the U.S. that cleans and disinfects endoscopes, which are used to examine the digestive tract.

"It takes away the possibility of human error in cleaning and also keeps a record of the cleaning," Surgical Services Director Phyllis Stout said.

Two years ago, the hospital also renovated its maternity wing, expanding from four to nine delivery and postpartum rooms, adding flat-screen TVs, news cabinets and hardwood floors, softer lighting, and a state-of-the-art fetal monitor for the nurses' stand.

Digital mammography will be in operation at the hospital by the end of the year. With this new technology, high-resolution mammogram images can be stored digitally and enlarged, replacing the old X-ray films.

"So it's easier for the radiologist to identify abnormalities," Will said.

In total, Lower Keys Medical Center has completed $32 million in capital improvements in the 10 years it has been operated by Health Management Associates (HMA), Will said.

"In health care, technology is always changing. So we need to try to provide the most up-to-date technology."

amswary@keysnews.com