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NorthBay Heart & Vascular Center Brings Comprehensive Cardiac Care to Solano County

Issue: June 2009

A state-of-the-art $4.6 million cardiovascular operating room (CVOR) was unveiled April 7 in NorthBay Medical Center in Fairfield, the first of its kind in Solano County. The CVOR is a centerpiece of a $10 million investment by NorthBay Healthcare. NorthBay Heart & Vascular Center will be able to care for some of the estimated 1,400 local heart patients who each year travel outside the county for care. Now, procedures such as coronary artery bypass, heart valve repair and replacement, and advanced aortic procedures, including the thoracic aorta, are available locally. The first surgery took place in late April.

The 880-square-foot CVOR, twice the size of a typical operating room, was designed with the help of cardiac surgeons Ramzi Deeik, M.D., and Robert Klingman, M.D., who together have performed more than 5,500 surgeries during their careers. Almost all bypass cases will be done without stopping the heart, without the need to put the patient on a heart-lung machine. This advanced “beating heart surgery” results in fewer complications and less time in the hospital for the recovering patient.

The center is a longtime dream of NorthBay Healthcare leaders, and has taken four years of planning and development. The best practices of many top surgical programs were studied and applied to the new program.

The program spans nearly every department in the hospital – from the emergency room staff to environmental services (which has a specially-trained cleaning staff for the CVOR). More than 50 NorthBay staff members from surgery, ICU, telemetry and ancillary departments have logged more than 12,000 hours of specialized training during the last two years in preparation for the first procedures.

Colin Construction of Grass Valley, which specializes in medical facility design, renovation and remodeling, was the general contractor for the project. Lionakis of Sacramento was project architect, while Montgomery Corporation of San Francisco was project consultant.

Cath Lab Transformed for Interventional Procedures – Laser Debuts

The new CVOR is just part of the new NorthBay Heart & Vascular Center. The first step in the center’s development was a $3.6 million Cardiac Catheterization Lab replacement project, completed in 2007. That project transformed the department from a diagnostic lab to one that can perform peripheral vascular interventional procedures.

The 3,600 sq. ft. cath lab features a Seimens AXIOM Artis dSC/dFA detector system which provides the latest digital technology for cardiac and peripheral angiography.

The first laser atherectomy took place in the NorthBay Medical Center cath lab in February when the lab acquired the latest Excimer “cool tip” laser. An atherectomy is a procedure that actually removes plaque from the artery walls of patients with peripheral artery disease (PAD), according to interventional cardiologist Milind Dhond, M.D.

Atherectomies have been performed in NorthBay Medical Center’s cardiac catheterization lab since last fall. This technology uses a catheter inserted into the body and threaded to the blockage, where plaque is scraped away with a cutting blade. Laser atherectomy replaces the blade with an ultraviolet light that vaporizes artery blockages into particles smaller than a red blood cell, which are easily absorbed into the blood stream.

The laser has been very useful at teaching hospitals to treat disease above- and below-the-knee. The laser has the ability to reach very small arteries and can even be used in the foot, according to Dr. Dhond.

Hospital Seeks Designation as a Chest Pain Center

NorthBay Medical Center’s Emergency Department has applied to become an accredited chest pain center. Chest pain centers are structured to provide patients with immediate medical evaluation by a team of cardiologists, emergency physicians and specialty nurses who use state-of-the-art diagnostic equipment and on-site surgical options. They also provide a dedicated observation setting, so physicians can monitor patients whose symptoms are not clearly understood. This ensures that a patient isn’t sent home too early.

The hospital’s goal is to earn accreditation as a chest pain center by the end of 2009.

Source: NorthBay Medical Center

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