Comprehensive new SMH Heart Center ushers in more convenient, advanced care for cardiac patients

Residents of East St. Tammany Parish and the Mississippi Gulf Coast, including Picayune, will soon be able to take advantage of more coordinated, convenient cardiac services and advanced technology. The completed Slidell Memorial Hospital Heart Center, a project done in two phases, is tentatively slated to open its second and final phase to patients on Mar. 30.

And with this project's completion, the community now has a specialized heart hospital within a full-service acute care hospital. It is yet another promise kept by SMH leadership and staff.

"For the community, this means the ability to provide state-of-the-art cardiovascular care in a consolidated environment, close to home,” said SMH Chief Executive Officer Bill Davis.

In addition, SMH has now been certified by the Joint Commission as a Primary Stroke Center, recognizing SMH meets exacting standards to support better outcomes for stroke care.

"We are intensely proud of what we've accomplished for our community,” said Davis. "This project is about saving lives and improving the community's health, now and in the future, and doing it in a way that shows we understand the need to find the best way of delivering excellent care while lowering costs of delivering that care.”

The SMH Heart Center was built in two phases. The first, opening in late 2013, was part of the construction of a new wing of the hospital. That wing houses the expanded Emergency Room on the first floor and the inpatient rooms of the SMH Heart Center on the second floor. The second phase of the SMH Heart Center, promised to the community when the first phase opened, brings together all other cardiac services of the hospital into one convenient, coordinated location adjoining the first phase.

What this project also brings to the community are leading-edge patient care features and the latest in diagnostic technology. There are 38 private, technologically-advanced "smart rooms” for inpatients, two state-of-the-art cardiac cath labs, a superior patient monitoring system and care delivered by one continuous team from "door to discharge.” The adjacent outpatient services area houses all diagnostic technology and treatment services including SMH Cardiac Rehab.

"The new Heart Center advances cardiac patient care by placing the patients at the center of every design and technology decision in ways I've never seen before, even in heart-specializing hospitals,” said SMH Cardiology Medical Director Vasanth K. Bethala.

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PHOTO INFORMATION: Attached is a map showing the location of the SMH Heart Center. Also attached is an image inside one of the Cardiac Cath Labs

ABOUT SMH
Slidell Memorial Hospital is a full-service 229-bed acute care not-for-profit community hospital located at 1001 Gause Blvd., in the heart of Slidell. Founded in 1959, SMH serves as a primary healthcare resource for families in St. Tammany Parish, La.; and, Pearl River County, Miss. For more information, visit http://www.slidellmemorial.org/ . The hospital's main phone number is (985) 280-2200.

Media contact:

Sam Caruso, Jr.

Slidell Memorial Hospital Foundation

Sam.Caruso@SlidellMemorial.org

(985) 280-8834