St. Vincent's Medical Center Plans Cardiac Catheterization Lab
Posted on: Wednesday, 17 August 2005, 21:00 CDT
Aug. 18--St. Vincent's Medical Center has plans to create Northeast Florida's first free-standing outpatient cardiac catheterization lab -- luring time-crunched patients with the dual benefits of convenience and cost savings.
The $1.25 million, Orange Park-based Heart and Vascular Center will mainly diagnose conditions such as coronary artery disease, clogged arteries or valve problems, the center's executive director Karen Darnell said. The lab will not perform procedures such as angioplasty or heart surgeries.
"It's an issue of providing easier access for patients," St. Vincent's chief John Maher said. "We don't believe that you have to necessarily come to a . . . hospital for all services."
The 3,200-square-foot operation, expected to open in January, will be located at St. Vincent's 40,000-square-foot outpatient center that already includes cardiology and pediatric offices and a pharmacy.
The facility is expected to attract patients within a 10 to 15 miles radius -- primarily from Clay County, but also from southern Duval County and northern St. Johns County.
Smaller and more limited in its services, the proposed center will have lower overhead costs than the larger, multi-purpose hospital-based outpatient catheterization labs. And that translates to lower patient bills and shorter wait times.
A cardiac catheterization at the Heart and Vascular Center can cost 10 to 20 percent less than in a hospital, Darnell said. Patients can undergo procedures in the less-congested lab in about half the time it would take at a hospital-based outpatient center, Darnell said.
The transition to offering cardiac cath services in free-standing outpatient centers can be expected, said Brian Klepper, president of the Jacksonville-based Center for Practical Health Reform.
"Technology has made increasingly complex procedures available and safe in lower-intensity facilities" like outpatient centers, he said.
While primarily serving St. Vincent's patients, the convenience factor could also lure business from the competition.
Darnell expects the center to draw about 300 to 500 patients in the first year, about 10 percent of whom would be new patients.
"We would not turn away," a patient from a competitor, she said.
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Source: The Florida Times-Union
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