New Cardiac Services at St. Mary’s Ozaukee

with Robert Roth, M.D., F.A.C.C., Cardiologist, Columbia St. Mary’s

Posted: Nov. 1, 2005

One of the fastest-growing areas in southeastern Wisconsin is Ozaukee County. That’s part of the reason St. Mary’s Hospital opened St. Mary’s Ozaukee 10 years ago. For the first time, residents of Mequon, Grafton, Port Washington and other Ozaukee County communities were able to access services ranging from emergency room care to cardiac rehab without crossing County Line Road.

Area cardiac patients know that St. Mary’s Ozaukee is the place to go for rehab. But because there was no full-service cardiac care in Ozaukee County, all had their bypass surgery, angioplasty or other procedure elsewhere.

In March 2005, that will change when St. Mary’s Ozaukee’s new cardiac unit opens, offering tertiary heart care. (Tertiary refers to highly specialized medical care that involves advanced and complex procedures and treatments.)

Robert Roth, M.D., F.A.C.C., Cardiologist, Columbia St. Mary’s "Timely cardiac care in an emergency can make an enormous difference in the level of recovery."

That’s good news for community residents for several reasons. Convenience for area patients in need of scheduled coronary procedures is one. But, said Robert Roth, M.D., a cardiologist at Columbia St. Mary’s and a member of the planning committee for the unit, when someone is having a heart attack, the time lag between the event and treatment can make an enormous difference.

“Timely cardiac care in an emergency can make an enormous difference in the level of recovery,” Dr. Roth said. “People don’t realize that the delay in treating this isn’t so much when they get to the hospital, but is in getting to the hospital in the first place and getting diagnosed.”

Once that happens, the standard of care is to identify the culprit lesion, the one that’s causing the heart attack, and perform a balloon angioplasty, opening up the blockage site and, if necessary, inserting a stent. The more quickly the blocked artery is opened, the less chance there is of permanent damage to the heart and other essential functions.

Saving time saves lives
Until now, doctors at St. Mary’s Ozaukee were only able to stabilize patients and prepare them for transport to Columbia or St. Mary’s hospitals in Milwaukee. That process, he said, took anywhere from 60 to 90 minutes. Now, with a tertiary-care cardiac unit on-site, Dr. Roth and his colleagues will be able to perform direct catheterization and other procedures.

“The question was, how could we cut out that big gap of time,” he said, “and the best way to do it was to build the unit, because people do have heart attacks in Cedarburg, Mequon, Port Washington and Grafton.”

Population growth in the area and expanded services at the hospital have also spurred a need for the new unit.

“People want their care to be delivered close to home,” Dr. Roth said, “and with our orthopaedic and cancer care units having been expanded, there are more people needing cardiac care as well.”

Cutting-edge facility
The unit was specifically designed to accommodate patients and their families.

“We’ve designed the unit to run through the outpatient department,” he said. “And there will be a comfortable place for family members to stay while their loved ones are having procedures.”

In addition, there are new cath lab facilities. The unit has been revamped to be dedicated completely to cardiac procedures and a large portion of a five-story patient tower currently in the planning stages will be dedicated to the care of cardiac patients.

Among the procedures that will be available in the new unit are bypass operations, in which blood flow to and from the heart is rerouted through the arteries; minimally invasive direct coronary artery bypass (MIDCAB), a bypass operation which is done with smaller incisions and leaves less scarring.

Other procedures include coronary endarterectomy, in which an blocked artery is opened as part of a bypass and the plaque is cleaned out of it; laser transmyocardial revascularization (LTMR), in which holes are drilled into the heart with a laser to improve blood flow in situations where bypass operations have been performed and cannot be re-done; off-pump coronary artery bypass surgery, done without using a heart-lung machine and resulting in fewer cognitive complications and arrhythmias; and minimally-invasive vein-harvest, done as part of a bypass operation. The procedure results in a lower rate of infection than conventional vein harvesting methods.

Peripheral vascular intervention, in which stents are used to open blocked arteries in other parts of the body, will also be offered at the new facility.

Robert Roth, M.D., F.A.C.C.
Wisconsin Cardiovascular Group
2315 N. Lake Drive #613
Milwaukee, WI 53211
414-271-1633

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