At the heart of change New heart center caps expansion

GO! Tours Sunday

What: Grand opening of BroMenn's Heart and Women's Centers

When: 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday.

Details: Tours of both centers, refreshments, music, low-fatcooking samples. Guests should enter through the hospital's new HeartCenter entrance on the building's west side.

Highlight: The public's first look at BroMenn's new cardiovascularcare unit, which includes 18 private rooms and should begin treatingpatients in May.

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NORMAL -- As Roger Hunt spoke in BroMenn Regional Medical Center'snew cardiovascular care unit on Monday, the sound of a drill brieflydrowned out his words.

The interruption was understandable. Construction of the unit --which includes 18 private rooms, two nurses' stations and supportareas -- is not quite complete.

But Hunt, BroMenn's chief executive officer, said all patient careareas will be complete by Sunday's public tours. In about threeweeks, work on support areas will be done, said project manager ChrisHofe of Barton Malow Co..

The unit must be inspected and approved by the Illinois Departmentof Public Health before BroMenn can use it. Hunt figures that patientcare will begin in May.

When that happens, patients needing cardiac intensive care andtheir families will experience less movement between rooms, moreprivacy, a better facility and newer technology, Hunt said.

"This is the crown of the whole Heart Center development ... andis the last major part of the expansion and renovation project to becompleted," Hunt said.

Completion of the cardiovascular care unit caps a 2 1/2-year,$22.5 million project that added 40,000 square feet to the southwestside of the hospital while renovating another 30,000 square feet.Before the project, the hospital was 409,000 square feet.

Parts already completed include an emergency department that isdouble the size of the former department; an open heart operatingroom; cardiopulmonary rehabilitation; cardiac catheterization lab;Women's Center offering mammography and bone densitometry; endoscopyservices; nuclear medicine and ultrasound; and inpatient pharmacy.The non-invasive cardiology unit should open in mid-April.

One idea behind the project is to get all cardiac intensive careservices in the same area of the hospital. Hunt pointed out during amedia tour of the cardiovascular care unit that emergency departmentand cardiac catheterization lab were below and the open heartoperating room was upstairs.

"The idea is to bring our resources to the patient" rather thanmoving the patient, Hunt said.

After surgery, patients will be able to spend the rest of theirhospital stay in a private room in the cardiovascular care unitrather than being transferred from intensive care to a step-down unitto a regular patient room.

Each room includes 6-foot-wide doors to make it easier to movepatients and their equipment, a private bathroom with an open showerto make it easier for patients to get in and out, and a family areathat includes a chair that opens into a small bed, a phone, desk andInternet access.

"This is a wonderful concept in the care of heart patients," saidDr. Dory Jarzabkowski, a cardiologist with Illinois Heart & LungAssociates. "Moving patients from area to area adds to stress."

Nurses should benefit too, said Janet Sutter, a registered nurseand BroMenn's director of critical care. While some nurses will betransferred from BroMenn's existing intensive care and step-downunits, another 30 full- and part-time nurses will be added, she said.