Medical Center Opens Heart Hospital

     The University of Tennessee Medical Center has opened the region’s Dedicated Heart Hospital.
    Community and hospital leaders were joined by University of Tennessee Lady Volunteer basketball team head coach Pat Summitt for a ceremony and open house April 22 to announce the Heart Hospital, a one-of-a-kind facility in the region with physicians, staff and services solely dedicated for the care of cardiovascular disease.
    That dedicated approach to treatment, hospital officials say, is expected to result in further improved quality of care for patients with cardiovascular disease.
    “The region’s dedicated Heart Hospital at The University of Tennessee Medical Center will be of tremendous benefit in helping those who suffer from cardiovascular disease in our community,” said Joseph R. Landsman, Jr., president and CEO of The University of Tennessee Medical Center. “A report by a task force of the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association found that dedicated heart hospitals following the appropriate clinical guidelines saw improved clinical care processes in 90 percent of their heart surgery cases.
    “The opportunity to even further improve the care we provide to our patients is absolutely our objective.”
    The $26 million, 4-story, 126,000 square-foot building adjoins the front of The University of Tennessee Medical Center’s main Knoxville campus. The dedicated heart hospital concept, according to Landsman, is to bring the best possible care and patient outcomes by maximizing the efficiency and effectiveness of heart, lung and vascular services at the medical center. The Heart Hospital will expand the inpatient services of The University of Tennessee Medical Center’s Heart Lung Vascular Institute.
    The coordination of care at a dedicated heart hospital, according to Landsman and Dr. John Mack, includes a close proximity and ease of access for physicians and staff between the medical center’s cardiovascular intensive care unit, cardiac catheterization center, operating rooms, emergency department and UT LIFESTAR.
    Crucial to the success of this concept, according to medical center physicians, is having doctors, nurses and other medical staff dedicated to working exclusively with cardiovascular disease patients utilizing the multidisciplinary approach for care and treatment that began with the formation of the Heart Lung Vascular Institute in 2001.
    The main floor of the Heart Hospital serves as the new front entrance to The University of Tennessee Medical Center.
    The second floor of the Heart Hospital houses a vastly expanded, state-of-the-art cardiovascular intensive care unit (CVICU). The 24-bed private-room unit adds six beds to the medical center’s current CVICU.
    The second phase of Heart Hospital construction is set to begin in the coming weeks. The third and fourth floors of the Heart Hospital will be built out in custom fashion, in order to accommodate the most prevalent heart, lung and vascular needs of patients. The Heart Hospital also has been constructed with the potential to increase to an eight-story building as demand increases in the coming years.
    The Heart Hospital marks the first new inpatient building constructed at The University of Tennessee Medical Center in more than a quarter of a century. The 12-story East Tower opened on the medical center’s campus in 1984.