PLAN MOVES HEART CENTER COMPLETION
DATE FORWARD BY A YEAR

Using space inside the existing hospital will allow Bluefield Regional Medical Center to construct and open the Heart Center approximately one year sooner than if the facility were to be housed in a new structure added on to BRMC, officials say.

The Heart Center will be built in renovated space on the 2nd floor now occupied by the OB service. The OB service will move to the 4th floor in space vacated by the Skilled Nursing Unit, which is being phased out due to low reimbursement levels from government payors.

This plan will enable BRMC to renovate the OB service and build the Heart Center for just $1 million more than the original $8.4 million estimated cost just for the Heart Center. Under this scenario, the Heart Center will be open by January of 2005, or sooner.

When the Heart Center is opened, all surgery services will be contained in a two-wing area adjacent to the Intensive Care and Cardiac Care Units. The existing Surgery wing will be renovated in the second phase of renovations, along with the special care units.

BRMC President and CEO Eugene Pawlowski is excited by the prospect of implementing quality advanced cardiology services sooner than originally projected. “Heart patients in our area have suffered long enough having to travel two hours away to get treatment. This plan will make it possible for them to get treatment nearby, and we will be able to begin providing these needed services approximately one year sooner than if we had to build a new structure to house the Heart Center.”

“Our program will be a first-class one,” Pawlowski stated. “Thoracic and Cardiovascular Associates, Inc., the largest group of surgeons serving Charleston Area Medical Center, will provide surgeons for BRMC’s Heart Center, and have pledged to provide experienced surgeons who have performed at least 1,000 bypass surgeries,” Pawlowski said. CAMC has one of the several largest heart programs in the United States.

BRMC is currently working with area cardiologists and anesthesiologists to recruit experienced physicians to the hospital to serve the Heart Center. Although the Charleston physician group will provide the surgeons, interventional procedures like balloon angioplasty and stent implantation will be performed by experienced cardiologists who will be recruited to BRMC. Anesthesiologists for cardiac surgery will also be recruited to BRMC

BRMC received approval for the project from the West Virginia Health Care Authority in August.