St. Alexius Medical Center in Hoffman Estates Offers an Interventional Cardiology Program

An aging population, along with a steady incidence of cardiac disease, has created a strong need for cardiac services in Chicago's northwest suburbs. Recognizing this need, Alexian Brothers Hospital Network four years ago launched an interventional cardiology program at St.Alexius Medical Center in Hoffman Estates.

Until then, Alexian Brothers Medical Center in Elk Grove Village, had been the primary option for emergency treatment of heart-attack victims from St. Alexius' service area, because standard practice was to perform primary cardiac intervention, or PCI, only at hospitals, such as ABMC, with on-site cardiac surgery programs.

But Alexian Brothers Health System decided it had a moral and humanitarian obligation to provide the same level of technological expertise in cardiac services at St. Alexius that it offers at ABMC, even though St. Alexius at the time did not offer cardiac surgery.

A series of studies had shown that PCI with angioplasty or stents is a better treatment for heart attacks than blood thinners or medical management. One study, by the Mayo Clinic, showed that PCI can be performed safely and effectively at hospitals that do not have a cardiac surgery program.

Plus, it was clear that eliminating the need for heart-attack victims from St. Alexius' service area to be transported an additional 15 minutes to ABMC would help to save lives and to reduce heart damage. Research has shown that if a heart attack can be stopped within 120 minutes of its onset, the amount of damage can be reduced significantly.

Since St. Alexius installed new equipment and added new staff to handle PCI in its cardiac catheterization laboratory in 2003, its interventional cardiology program has grown significantly. This year, the hospital opened two new catheterization labs to handle increased demand.

The hospital also has added a wide range of other cardiology services, including surgical programs for the treatment of congestive heart failure. In 2006, St. Alexius unveiled a $1 million-plus renovation and expansion of its telemetry unit, which features sophisticated equipment that enables doctors to monitor the heart's rhythm and electrical activity and to identify changes that might lead to a cardiac event.

With the exception of open-heart surgery, St. Alexius now offers the same type and caliber of cardiology treatments that ABMC offers, providing a more convenient - and in some cases, life-saving - treatment alternative for patients in St. Alexius' service area.

Early this year, ABMC and St. Alexius each earned Disease-Specific Care Certification and a Gold Seal of Approval^TM for health-care quality from The Joint Commission for their congestive heart failure programs. Each of the programs underwent an extensive, unannounced on-site evaluation by a team of reviewers from The Joint Commission.

St. Alexius and ABMC collaborate continually with the Alexian Clinical Research Program to conduct clinical trials of new devices for treatment of cardiovascular disease, including different types of stents that can be inserted into blood vessels to improve blood flow and to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke.

The hospitals' objective: Help patients benefit from leading-edge technology - and from the combined knowledge and expertise of two strong cardiology programs.