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Approval process ‘looking good’ for expansion of hospital’s cardiac care program

Life-saving angioplasty procedure first became available to local patients in August
20180919-SAH angioplasty-DT-01
The Sault Area Hospital area where angioplasty is performed. Darren Taylor/SooToday

The approval process for the expansion of Sault Area Hospital’s angioplasty program is moving along.

After receiving long-awaited Ministry of Health approval, SAH first began performing the life-saving heart procedure (angioplasty also known as percutaneous coronary intervention, or PCI) in partnership with heart surgeons from Toronto’s St. Michael's Hospital in August 2018.

Now, SAH is going through the multi-stage process of renovating existing hospital space for the PCI program’s Phase 2.

“It’s looking good. It (the Ministry approval process for Phase 2) is just slow,” said Lil Silvano, SAH vice president and chief financial officer, speaking to reporters after Monday’s SAH board of directors meeting.

“Phase 2 would involve the expansion of our current space by including another cath lab. It will help us to recruit a full time interventional cardiologist and allow us to do more volume, and one of the biggest things we want to achieve is 24 and 7 PCI. It would give us more efficiency. If a patient is on the table and an emergent one comes in, it would be easy to take that patient into a second lab,” Silvano said.

Money for equipment needed in an expanded angioplasty lab has been raised by the Sault Area Hospital Foundation (SAHF), and a local architectural and engineering firm will work on drawings of the expanded lab.

In PCI, a catheter is used on a cardiac patient to insert a stent to open up clogged blood vessels in the heart.

Angioplasty usually follows an exploratory procedure known as an angiogram.

Ila Watson, SAH interim president and CEO, described it as ‘a game changer,’ enabling Sault and area patients to receive care closer to home in a report delivered to the SAH board Monday.

“We’re not yet a year in, and it’s going very well,” Watson said.

Prior to August 2018, local heart patients had to travel to hospitals in other communities for angioplasty.

Approximately 250 PCI’s have been performed in partnership with St. Michael’s surgeons since the procedure became available at SAH.

The partnership with St. Michael’s as a mentoring hospital is a necessary requirement when implementing a program such as PCI, usually lasting two years, but Silvano smiled “they really like us here. The relationship with St. Mike’s will continue, I imagine, until we get a full time cardiologist.”

In other SAH news, Watson said “the talk is ongoing” regarding provincial approval for a new Level III Withdrawal Management Services facility in Sault Ste. Marie.

“We continue to have discussions with the LHIN, we continue to be in touch with (Sault MPP) Ross Romano.”

The proposed 33-bed Level III facility would be a replacement for the existing 16 bed SAH detoxification centre located at 911 Queen St. E.

SAH has requested $11 million for construction of the facility, with an additional, ongoing request for $5.8 million for operational expenses (on top of the current $1.1 million it receives for the existing detox centre).

The election of a new provincial government in 2018 appeared to put plans for the facility in question, but SAH officials say they are encouraged by Premier Doug Ford’s acknowledgement, in May, of the need for the facility.

Watson said a meeting with some of SAH’s directors July 5 will be an opportunity to see where things stand with the proposal, what SAH’s next steps should be, what hope there is for the Level III facility and what other options the hospital may have to pursue.

Watson told reporters “we will continue to be active” in lobbying for the facility despite the anticipated traditional slowdown of bureaucracy during the summer months.

Watson also informed the board SAH’s Rapid Access Addiction Medicine (RAAM) clinic, located at 123 East St. and officially opened in April 2018, designed to initiate therapy for opioid or alcohol addiction and then triage clients to the most appropriate ongoing care provider, has so far served 187 unique patients.


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Darren Taylor

About the Author: Darren Taylor

Darren Taylor is a news reporter and photographer in Sault Ste Marie. He regularly covers community events, political announcements and numerous board meetings. With a background in broadcast journalism, Darren has worked in the media since 1996.
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