Iowa’s Top Cath Lab:
Mercy Ranks #1 in State for Cardiac Interventional Procedures
 Perhaps no one in Siouxland knows your heart better than Mercy Medical Center—Sioux City, the hospital ranked number one in Iowa for clinical excellence in cardiac interventional procedures including angioplasties and stent placement, according to a comprehensive study released last October by HealthGrades, the nation’s leading independent healthcare ratings company.
Western Iowa’s leading hospital is also ranked number one in the state for vascular care, according to the same national study.
The hospital’s top rankings and exemplary patient outcomes also helped it earn HealthGrades’ 2007 Specialty Excellence Awards for vascular surgery and cardiac care. The hospital ranks among the top 10% of the nation’s 5,000 hospitals for overall cardiac services and vascular surgery services.
“Mercy staff members and our physician partners at Cardiovascular Associates (CVA) have created a culture of excellence that encourages the delivery of world-class care,” said Sharon Blanche, the executive director of the Mercy Heart Center. “The capabilities and quality of care in our cardiac catheterization (cath) labs is simply second to none in the region.”
“A highly experienced staff supports and assists excellent interventional cardiologists. As a result, our patients benefit.”
Sioux City’s first cardiac cath lab was established at the St. Joseph’s Unit of Marian Health Center, now Mercy Medical Center in Feb. 1977. The availability of what was then a fairly new diagnostic technique opened the doors to what would become modern cardiac care in the Sioux City area.
In Nov. 2003, the hospital formally dedicated its Mercy Heart Center, a state-of-the-art cardiac care facility. The Heart Center is home to two leading-edge cath labs in which where a full range of procedures are performed including diagnostic studies, angioplasty and stent placement.
Nearby, patients benefit from a new short stay unit with 12 patient beds – nine private rooms and a three-bed recovery area. The nine private rooms are used for patient preparation and recovery from catheterization procedures, as well as other outpatient cardiac procedures.
Mercy performs more cardiac interventional procedures than any other hospital in western Iowa. More than 500 cardiac interventions and 1,500 diagnostic catheterizations are performed at the hospital each year.
Mercy has also routinely been the first hospital in the region to make use of the latest advances in interventional cardiology.
Mercy made history in 2001, when a high-tech heart procedure known as coronary brachytherapy was performed for the first time in Siouxland. Brachytherapy is performed immediately after an angioplasty procedure and the placement of a stent. During the procedure, a special catheter (fine hollow tube) containing tiny radioactive seeds is inserted for approximately three to five minutes inside the artery, and then removed. The procedure is intended to curb restenosis, the re-narrowing of coronary arteries after they have been opened by angioplasty and the placement of a stent.
In 2002, Mercy was the first area hospital to perform a stent graft procedure to repair an abdominal aortic aneurysm, a weakened area in the wall of the abdominal aorta (the main artery that provides blood to the lower body). Left untreated, an aneurysm may expand and rupture, causing a sudden and possibly fatal loss of blood.
In 2003, Mercy Medical Center—Sioux City marked another first for the region when Heart Center cardiologists implanted a biventricular pacemaker, the first mechanical device of its type approved by the government for the treatment of the symptoms associated with congestive heart failure (CHF).
Cardiologists, emergency physicians and other healthcare professionals at Mercy Medical Center continue to achieve some the best statistical outcomes in the nation for early heart attack care. Statistically, 85% of Mercy’s heart attack patients benefit from percutaneous coronary intervention within 90 minutes of arrival at the hospital. In fact, recent data shows the average door-to-dilation time at Mercy Heart Center was just 65 minutes.
Last year, Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa named Mercy Medical Center a Blue Distinction Center for Cardiac Care. Blue Distinction is a nationwide program that creates an unprecedented level of healthcare transparency for consumers and providers.
Cardiac patients who require more than an interventional procedure in Mercy’s cath labs might also benefit from the expertise of the hospital’s regionally and nationally recognized open-heart surgery program, the only one in the Sioux City area. Mercy has been performing cardiothoracic surgery for the past 29 years.
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