$15M lifts hearts at St. Mary’s

Funding raised for heart rhythm program at regional cardiac care centre

KITCHENER — St. Mary’s General Hospital has raised the $15 million needed to launch its much-anticipated heart rhythm program, the final essential piece for the regional cardiac care centre.

The program is expected to start treating patients in January 2019.

“It will be really good when we’re able to offer that here,” said hospital president Don Shilton.

Currently, patients need to travel to London and Hamilton, he said, and it creates “disconnected care” since they often have other heart issues that are treated in Kitchener.

The hospital long planned to add the heart rhythm program, which is focused on electrical problems of the heart. When St. Mary’s rebuilt the cardiac operating rooms in 2008, space was left for an electrophysiology unit.

Electrophysiology studies map the electrical circuits of the heart to identify areas causing arrhythmias, or irregular heart rhythm.

A catheter inserted into the heart can then deliver a burst of high-energy waves to destroy these abnormal areas — a procedure called ablation.

In June 2016, the province committed up to $7 million to build the specialized suite and recovery areas. The health ministry funds 90 per cent of capital projects, but not equipment needed for new or expanded

programs.

That left the foundation to raise 10 per cent of the capital cost, along with all the equipment costs. In total, $15 million needed to be raised from the community.

The five-year fundraising effort wrapped up at the end of last year with a $1.5-million donation from the Lyle S. Hallman Foundation to push it across the finish line.

The investment in the cardiac centre will ensure “care where you need it, close to home,” said Susan Dusick, president of the St. Mary’s General Hospital Foundation.

St. Mary’s is the only cardiac centre in the province without a fully functioning heart rhythm program, which means patients who need treatment for electrical current and rhythm issues (or arrhythmias) must travel outside the region for care.

On average, they wait 100 days for treatment.

“The patients are waiting longer because they were in a queue with another region,” Dusick said.

Wait times for heart rhythm patients are expected to be cut in half, and offering the services here will reduce the stress and anxiety that travel has on patients and their families.

When the provincial money was announced, St. Mary’s expected to launch the program in fall 2017. The delay was due to time required to go through the capital approval process.

“It just takes a while to move these things all the way through,” Shilton said.

The hospital was hopeful the process would be expedited because Health Minister Eric Hoskins was involved, “but unfortunately that was not the case,” Shilton said. “I get that.”

Two heart rhythm specialists are already on staff, and one or two more will need to be recruited when the program is up and running.

St. Mary’s doesn’t plan to stop with the heart rhythm program.

It also wants to add a third catheterization lab, more beds and procedure suites.

Team leaders are also looking at what can be done outside the hospital walls, including satellite centres for cardiac rehabilitation and remote monitoring of pacemakers.

“There are opportunities for improving the care,” Shilton said.

St. Mary’s became home to St. Mary’s Regional Cardiac Care Centre in 2001. More than one million people in Waterloo Region, Wellington, Huron Perth and Grey Bruce Counties now depend on St. Mary’s for advanced cardiac care.

The centre offers diagnostics, cardiac catheterization and intervention, bypass and valve surgeries, pacemaker insertions, a heart function clinic, integrated heart failure clinic and device program, and cardiac rehabilitation.