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Transforming Heart Care
Dominican Hospital Unveils Comprehensive Cardiac Operating Suite
Dominican Hospital has debuted a new comprehensive cardiac operating suite as part of its ongoing efforts to expand surgical capacity for patients, physicians, and the community. Designed in close collaboration with local doctors, this unique space enables interventional radiologists, interventional cardiologists, and cardiovascular surgeons to work effortlessly alongside each other—in the same room, at the same time.
“The comprehensive cardiac operating suite is a critical part of our commitment to providing innovative, leading edge cardiovascular services to the people of Santa Cruz County,” said Dominican Hospital President and CEO Nanette Mickiewicz, MD. “This unique space allows our medical team to perform state-of-the-art interventional radiology alongside valve repair and replacement procedures typically found only in larger metropolitan settings. For our patients, it delivers the convenience of keeping all of their cardiac care—even the most advanced—local.”
Our multidisciplinary heart and vascular team will provide enhanced treatment of complex cardiovascular diseases, quickly moving between diagnoses to minimallyinvasive interventional vascular procedure to open heart surgery, if necessary. The suite will make use of the latest in high-tech imaging, computer and diagnostic equipment, and newly developed surgical and robotic capabilities, as well as a traditional cardiovascular catheterization lab.
The result is truly patient-centered care, including greater flexibility in scheduling procedures, shorter procedure times, reduced hospital stays, lower infection risks, and faster recovery with fewer follow-up procedures.
“The state of cardiac care has moved from highly-invasive, open-heart procedures to tiny incisions with minimal recovery time— but in order to deliver on that evolution, you need technologies and facilities not generally available in conventional operating rooms,” said Bilal Shafi, MD, cardiovascular surgeon and Medical
Director of the Dominican Hospital Heart and Vascular Program. “Comprehensive cardiac operating suites like the one at
Dominican are the single, most important investment a hospital can make for a community. This suite will define the future of heart care in Santa Cruz County. ”
The suite was designed in close collaboration with affiliated physicians, who helped visualize and orient the space via virtual reality technology. Based on their extensive experience, the doctors’ recommendations ensured the room was built to meet their needs and the needs of their surgical teams.
The $7.7 million Comprehensive Cardiac
Operating Suite (above), $2 million of which was provided by generous community donations through the Dominican Hospital Foundation, enables seamless and centralized delivery of advanced imaging and diagnostics, minimally invasive interventions, and open surgery.
To learn more about the new comprehensive cardiac operating suite and Dominican Hospital’s Heart and Vascular Program, please visit dignityhealth.org/dominican/hearts.
To support the ongoing need to transform heart care at Dominican, please contact the Foundation at 831.462.7712 or visit supportdominican.org.
