Recognized as the Region’s Comprehensive, Full Service Heart Hospital, Southeast’s Cardiac Surgery Program Ranks in Top 10% in U.S.

It was more than 40 years and more than 1.6 billion heartbeats ago that Southeast Missouri Hospital embarked on a journey of growth that today has evolved into the region’s first Heart Hospital.

Southeast President and CEO James W. Wente, FACHE, CPA, said, “Bringing vital services to our region has been a commitment of Hospital leadership since Southeast opened 80 years ago.”

Recognizing the need for specialty care for cardiac patients, Southeast in 1966 became the region’s first hospital with an Intensive Care Unit designed especially for cardiology patients. The first cardiac catheterization in the region was performed at Southeast that year as well. Growth in cardiac services and technology continued over the next two decades. In the early 1980s, Hospital leadership learned that the southeast region of the state held the\ dubious distinction of having the highest death rate in the state due to cardiovascular-related diseases.

That, coupled with the fact that open heart surgery services were available only in metropolitan areas, led to the introduction of open heart surgery at Southeast in 1984.

Since then, more than 6,700 surgeries have been
performed at the Heart Hospital and dozens of new services and technologies have been made available to the almost 600,000 people the Heart Hospital serves.

Network of Services

“The Heart Hospital is a network of comprehensive, world class services developed by a team of physicians and other healthcare professionals highly specialized and experienced in full service cardiac care,” Wente said. In addition to three cardiac and vascular surgeons, nine cardiologists, four pulmonologists, five Adult Hospitalists and 11 Emergency Services physicians who are part of Southeast’s 300-plus member Medical Staff work closely with cardiac patients. The 189 nurses who work in areas with cardiac patients are trained in Advanced Cardiac Life Support and in 12-lead EKG interpretation.

More than 30 Heart Hospital departments, from Anesthesia to Wellness Services, play vital roles in the Hospital’s comprehensive cardiovascular services.

“The Heart Hospital stands side-by side with other highly respected medical centers specializing in cardiac care,” Wente said. “The components of Southeast’s full service Heart Hospital have been built over the decades. When new technology becomes available, we have made it available here, close to home.”

Chest Pain Center

Components of the Heart Hospital are many and include southeast Missouri’s first nationally accredited Chest Pain Center. Myrna Ward, MSN, RN, Director of Patient Care, said last year more than 1,400 chest pain patients were seen at the center.

“The door to EKG time for a patient complaining about chest pain is four minutes,” she noted. “For those patients diagnosed with an acute heart attack, the door to Cath Lab time was an average of 78 minutes, well below the 90-minute goal of the American College of Cardiology, the American Heart Association and the Society of Chest Pain Centers.”

Other components of equal importance are the Heart Hospital’s nationally accredited cardiac/pulmonary rehabilitation program with satellite cardiac rehab
programs in Dexter and Sikeston; specialized nursing units that include a dedicated Cardiothoracic Intensive Care, Cardiac Progressive Care and Surgical Progressive Care; state-of-the-art Cardiac Catheterization Laboratories; and an Endovascular Suite.

Southeast’s team of cardiac and vascular surgeons over the years has introduced numerous leading-edge surgical procedures.

Working with the surgeons are dedicated open heart surgery and open heart anesthesia teams. The Heart Hospital recently increased its number of operating suites from 14 to 18. Four of those major surgery suites are equipped with cutting edge technology that allows the surgical team to instantly view critical patient information, and one is a dedicated Endovascular Suite equipped with the latest technology.

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