Myrtle Dixie Rouse Desmares
January 6, 2009Wilson Joseph Mabile
January 8, 2009
Ochsner St. Anne General Hospital in Raceland reopened its catheterization lab last month after an 18-month renovation.
Besides the over $250,000 upgrade, Ochsner St. Anne has contracted to perform interventional catheterizations on patients referred from Leonard J. Chabert Medical Center in Houma.
Patients needing interventional caths require either stents or a balloon angiogram to clear restricted arteries, and a surgical backup team must be present. Chabert will continue to perform diagnostic caths, which is an examination to detect blocked arteries.
“Historically, patients at Chabert have had a long delay time in getting (interventional) caths because they had to get them at University Hospital in New Orleans or at Huey P. Long (Medical Center) in Baton Rouge,” said Milton Bourgeois Jr., CEO of Ochsner St. Anne.
Patients sent to Ochsner St. Anne are considered “low-risk,” which is defined by the cardiologist, according to Dr. Michael Garcia, medical director at Chabert Medical Center. Those that are considered “high-risk” will be referred to other major medical centers.
The arrangement takes advantage of recently published reports that offsite cardiac interventional caths can be performed safely even though the backup team is up to an hour away.
“It’s the first evac of its kind in the state,” Garcia noted. “It’s been demonstrated in other parts of the country as being an effective way of delivering care locally even though backup might be a long ways away yet survival is still good.”
Dry runs have been successfully conducted with Acadian Ambulance, which is responsible for transporting patients from Chabert to the Ochsner operating room in sufficient time, according to Bourgeois.
The cath lab reopened on Dec. 23. By New Year’s Day, four interventional caths had been done.
Currently, doctors have scheduled patients for Tuesdays only.
The cath lab at St. Anne first opened in 1998 and was very active. Ochsner cardiology utilized it until around 2003, according to Bourgeois.
“We had two Ochsner cardiologists who were living and working here full time,” he said. “In 2003, one of them went to New Orleans and the other left the state.”
After that, Cardiovascular Institute of the South used the cath lab but on a much more limited basis, Bourgeois said.
When Ochsner and St. Anne partnered in 2006, bringing Ochsner cardiology back to the Raceland facility became a priority. The cath lab was closed for the past 18 months while upgrades to the center were completed.
“A lot of it was software upgrades, computer systems, better imaging capabilities and just completely redoing the cath lab, making sure it meets all standards,” Bourgeois said. “Since it hasn’t been utilized, you really just have to go through and do a complete overhaul of the unit.”
Despite its name, a cath lab is not a room, but a self-contained unit with imaging equipment attached that allows doctors to do heart angiograms.
While the Toshiba-made unit purchased by the hospital could be used for other purposes, Ochsner St. Anne is limiting its use to cardiac patients.
Between the cath lab reopening and the St. Anne-Chabert collaboration, Bourgeois and Garcia see these as positive steps forward in fighting heart disease, the number one killer of south Louisianans, they said.
“We share some of the best cardiologists in the area. They come here, and they go there,” Garcia said. “Everybody wins, even the indigent patients we see here are able to get their caths at St. Anne.”
After undergoing an 18-month, $250,000 renovation, the catheterization laboratory at Ochsner St. Anne General Hospital in Raceland reopened in late December. By New Year’s Day, four interventional caths had been performed. Procedures are currently being scheduled for Tuesdays. * Photo by KEYON K. JEFF
