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Toshiba representative Lyle Hall describes the state-of-the-art imaging system in one of the Reid Heart Center’s two Electrophysiology Suites to visitors during a Jan. 9 open house. |
PINEHURST – The Reid Heart Center: The FirstHealth Cardiac & Vascular Institute is now officially caring for people.
Residents of the communities FirstHealth of the Carolinas serves got a chance to visit the new facility for consolidated cardiovascular care during an open house held Sunday, Jan. 9. Members of the Moore County business community got their own look at the building the following Thursday (Jan. 13) during a Business After Hours hosted by the Moore County Chamber of Commerce.
Less than a week later, patients were in the building and, by 8 a.m. Monday, Jan. 17, invasive cardiologist David Cowherd, M.D., was performing the facility’s first cardiac catheterization – nearly 24 years after he performed Moore Regional’s first-ever cardiac cath in July 1987. Assisting Dr. Cowherd with the first cardiac cath in the Reid Heart Center were Andy Scott, registered cardiovascular invasive specialist; Stephanie Hough, R.N.; and Kelly Thomas, cardiovascular technician.
The Heart Center’s CCU, ISU and CVT units opened later on Jan. 17, and the first open-heart surgery and vascular procedures were performed the following day (Tuesday, Jan. 18). In just the first week of the Heart Center’s opening, some 35 procedures were performed in the facility’s new operating rooms.
In another milestone, cardiothoracic surgeon Art Edgerton, M.D., did the Heart Center’s first open-heart case, a triple coronary artery bypass. The first incision was made at 7:52 a.m., and the case took about three and a half hours to complete.
Assisting Dr. Edgerton with the surgery were Matthew Mooney, P.A.; surgical technologists Jennifer Haywood and Jamie Waldschmidt; registered nurse Marilyn Rogers; anesthesiologist James Winkley, M.D.; nurse anesthetist Bradley Morgan; and perfusionist Steve Hoadley.
According to Tom Kane, administrative director of Surgical Services, the Heart Center’s first vascular case – performed by Clinton Atkinson, M.D., in less than three hours – was “perfectly suited” for the facility’s new multi-use operating room.
“An abdominal aortic aneurysm is a bulging of the aorta,” Kane says. “A repair is necessary to avoid a life-threatening rupture of the vessel, and the new OR room has a fixed X-ray that provides state-of-the-art X-ray images for the repair process. Catheters and grafts are introduced through the femoral arteries, allowing for the repairs to be done from inside the aorta. The new equipment and operating room make the process safer and easier than ever.”
In addition to Dr. Atkinson, the vascular team included Nicole Burley, R.N.; Steve Creed, R.N.; and Royal Wyatt and Lauri Chriscoe, certified surgical technologists. Providing anesthesia were Jay ReVille, M.D.; and nurse anesthetist Natalie Johnson.
“A welcome addition in helping operate the new X-ray equipment was angiography technologist Ryan Eubanks,” Kane says.
The Heart Center’s Post Anesthesia Care Unit (PACU) had four patients on opening day and cared for 25 patients during the first week. The 27-bed Cardiac Specialty Unit (formerly known as Hiatt) and the Chest Center of the Carolinas have also opened in the Heart Center, and various support services (including Admitting, the Bistro café, Dietary and Environmental Services) are operational in the facility.
Nuclear Medicine will move into the building the first week in February, and the seven Cath Labs are being relocated from the main hospital one at a time. The final one is expected to be in place by April.
