Evolution of cardiac care in Niagara

Niagara’s new centre of excellence is being modelled after the Hamilton General Hospital’s Heart Investigation Unit.

The prevalence of chronic health conditions in Niagara directly impacts the care and services we require in order to build a better future for our family and loved ones.

As our population’s health needs grow and change, our services must as well.

For example, each year in excess of 1,900 Niagara residents travel outside of the region for specialized cardiac care because we currently do not have access to these specialized services within our geographical area.

With a significant aging population in Niagara, this demand will continue to increase.

To address this surge, when the new health complex in St. Catharines opens its doors in 2013, Niagara will be home to its very own Heart Investigation Unit – meaning that we will have timely access to specialized cardiac services in our own region.

In planning for the new healthcare facility, we are preparing today for the reality we are going to face five, ten, to 25 years from now.

The Heart Investigation Unit, to provide cardiac catheterization services, is being developed from both an operational and capital perspective to provide flexibility in terms of increased numbers of patients and the type of services being provided.

Cardiac catheterization is a minimally invasive procedure whereby healthcare practitioners are able to view how the heart and blood vessels are working so that they can evaluate individual patient needs for other procedures.

“What’s exciting about bringing in a new service at the time of constructing a new centre of excellence is that it allows us to not only look at the physical space provided within the building, but at essentially creating a new program,” says NHS Vice President of Patient Services Sue Matthews. “From there we can look at linkages with other community-based programs and focus on providing a full continuum of care which we have not been able to do for patients in Niagara suffering from cardiac disease.”

In discussion with Hamilton Health Sciences and our Local Health Integration Network, the NHS continues to discuss what service would be most appropriate for the region within the new facility – often discussed as diagnostic (identifying or assessing the level of disease) versus interventional (treatment).

These discussions focus on best practice, human resource requirements and a collaborative approach to cardiac care. The end result is improved service and access to care.

“In preparation for providing these services to our own patients, we have partnered with Hamilton Health Science’s cardiac program to facilitate the planning for this new service based on their expertise,” adds Matthews.

Armed with the capacity to provide this service, the benefit of this new program will be seen in state-of-the-art infrastructure and recruitment of high quality professionals.

Its outcomes to our patients and loved ones will be measured in lives saved.

“In building the new health complex, the opportunity we have before us is not only about infrastructure – the actual bricks and mortar of the new building,” says NHS Chief Planning and Development Officer Gloria Kain, “but about transforming the services we provide.”

The addition of these required programs and services will change the face of healthcare in Niagara and will address the chronic disease conditions we have been battling for years.

For our family and loved ones, this means longer and healthier lives. «