St. CLOUD, Fla. – Next week, Orlando Health in St. Cloud will open a major expansion at its hospital, including new cardiac catheterization labs and ICU rooms.
The additions aim to improve emergency heart-attack care and critical patient recovery.
Recommended Videos
Dr. Prakrut Patel, an interventional cardiologist at the hospital, said the facilities are urgently needed in the community.
“An area like this, we see one person having a major heart attack every other night,” he said.
[EXCLUSIVE: Become a News 6 Insider (it’s FREE) | PINIT! Share your photos]
The advanced technology used in the catheterization lab helps diagnose and treat blocked arteries and other cardiac conditions.
Right now, patients who arrive to the hospital with a severe heart attack can be treated in these labs, but those that need to be transported via ambulance for care must be sent to Orlando. These new labs will allow the hospital to have the criteria necessary to allow them to be treated in St. Cloud.
“Meeting the criteria to be a STEMI-certified facility means that our St. Cloud Fire Rescue and Osceola County Fire Rescue Partners, will know that they can bring a patient to us (if they’re) suffering from heart attack symptoms and we will be prepared and capable of managing that patient, 365 days a year, 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” said Brian Wetzel, president of Orlando Health St. Cloud. “Without this expansion, we could not meet that criteria, which meant that those patients had to be delivered to a STEMI-certified facility. As of this summer, we would become a STEMI-certified facility through this expansion and through the wonderful partnership we have with specialists.”
Travel time to Orlando for heart-attack patients can be up to 90 minutes, according to Dr. Patel. When patients can be treated in St. Cloud, that travel time becomes procedure and recovery time.
“Every single minute you waste, heart muscles are dying,” he said. “We will save time by doing the procedure here in St. Cloud. The patient will have a better outcome, their loved one can see them here.”
The expansion also includes 10 new ICU rooms designed to enhance patient care. The rooms feature smart whiteboards and cameras, allowing patients to communicate virtually with specialists. They also provide enhanced privacy features like doors that frost with the push of a button.
These ICU rooms, bringing the hospital’s total to 18, will be especially important for critical patients, like the ones who will be treated in the new labs.
“In about an hour, the patient feels better, and once the patient recovers, we send them upstairs to our new ICU room and they take over the patient’s care,” Dr. Patel said.