Heart centre finally accepts first patients
Safety issues delayed state-of-the-art facility
Jodie Sinnema
Edmonton Journal
Friday, July 17, 2009
Judy Korschow's heart is failing, but she's optimistic that as one of the first patients to move into the new Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute, her chances of landing a new heart are good.
"This is the right place to be," Korschow said Thursday from her hospital bed on the fifth floor. "This is a long time coming."
The opening was delayed four years by construction delays.
Korschow has been sick from a congenital heart problem for 13 years.
But Dr. Arvind Koshal has been waiting 18 years to open the$230-million, state-of-the-art facility he first dreamed of back in 1991. The money came through, but despite a grand opening last May that included a speech from Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the doors stayed shut.
"The delays were disturbing, certainly, because everybody asks you when are you moving in, why aren't you moving in," said Koshal, chief of cardiac surgery.
"For us in the institute, it's been a mixed emotion about the delay, because the delays were primarily based on safety issues, and we don't want to move in when there is a safety issue at hand."
Koshal said there were problems with the circulation system that is critical in keeping the air clean and preventing the spread of infection. The new hospital generator wasn't compatible with the backup generators at the University of Alberta Hospital, which is linked to the heart institute. Fire alarms also caused some grief.
Documents obtained by The Journal through the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act previously revealed bickering between the health authority and the construction company over more than 1,000 construction changes. That put in danger the hospital's reputation, staff recruitment and patient safety, since wait times weren't going down, the documents revealed.
But Koshal said he's confident all the heart patients currently at the University hospital will be rolled into the Mazankowski centre within two weeks.
The operating rooms will open some time in August, he said, including a hybrid operating room where surgeons, radiologists and cardiologists all work around the same operating table, ordering CT scans, performing open-heart surgery or catheter procedures. Traditionally, tables can only handle one of these specialties.
"We are quite confident that certainly within a few weeks we will be fully operational in the new facility," Koshal said. A 100-seat auditorium, linked electronically with the operating rooms for learning purposes, won't be complete for several months. "This makes a very important step for cardiac care, not just in Edmonton, not just in Alberta but for the rest of the country because this is a state-of-the-art, world-class facility."
On Thursday, eight cardiac inpatients, including Korschow, were in the heart centre beds and staying overnight. Another 36 are expected to move in today, with a near-full complement of 95 filling the ward in two weeks.
Approximately 600 nurses, doctors and other medical experts are also moving over. Koshal said there are currently enough workers to staff the centre. More may be needed in the future. The top three floors are expected to open in one or two years, complete with a virtual reality laboratory where surgeons will be able to walk into 3-D holographic images of people's hearts to study blood vessels or abnormalities.
The Mazankowski's opening will also free up space in the University hospital.
"People are scrambling to get in there," said Dr. David Johnstone, chief of cardiac surgery for the Mazankowski heart institute. "Everybody else wants our space."
It's expected that space will go toward alleviating the crunch at the Stollery Children's Hospital emergency ward, where a temporary tent was set up to deal with sick kids.
David Eggen, executive director of Friends of Medicare, said the opening announcement came at a time when the government and Alberta Health Services needed good news. In the past several weeks, attention has been focused on the mistaken closure of eight hospital helipads, cuts to MRIs at the Misericordia and Grey Nuns hospitals and a projected $1-billion deficit for the new health authority.
"It's unfortunate that such an expensive marquee facility is mired in this kind of delay," Eggen said. "You can open the doors. Until they open those operating doors, the place isn't actually functioning."
© The Edmonton Journal 2009
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