Downtown Charleston's health care complex officially gets bigger this week as
Roper St. Francis Healthcare unveils its new $77.4 million Heart and Vascular
Tower on Calhoun Street.
The seven-story expansion, which will house all of the hospital system's
heart and vascular care facilities, plus an outpatient surgery center and 147
private patient rooms, is expected to begin admitting patients in early May. It
is the first all-new facility to open its doors in the area in nearly 20
years.
The tower's construction follows a national building trend, as treatment for
heart disease and vascular problems becomes increasingly technology-driven.
As baby boomers age, often saddled with hypertension, high cholesterol and
diabetes, the nation is expected to be burdened like never before by sick hearts
and circulatory systems. These patients will need an arsenal of drugs, stents,
bypass surgeries and implantable pacemakers and defibrillators.
In South Carolina, heart disease is the leading cause of death, and stroke
ranks third. About a third of the state's population has high blood pressure and
high cholesterol, two problems that fuel heart disease. And 60 percent of
Palmetto State residents are obese, which adds strain to their hearts and
circulatory systems.
"There's an enormous need for the treatment and education around this
disease, so it made sense that we'd focus on this," said Roper Hospital Chief
Executive Officer Matthew Severance.
He and other hospital leaders and physicians also are banking on the Heart
and Vascular Tower as a way to boost Roper's national reputation and, by
offering specialized, one-stop-shopping care, pull in more patients from the
area's competitive health-care market.
Construction began last year on the Medical University of South Carolina's
new hospital, a multiphase project that's expected to cost more than $1 billion.
East Cooper Regional Medical Center and Roper St. Francis received state
approval last month to build new facilities in Mount Pleasant. East Cooper plans
to put a 140-bed hospital next door to its existing facility on Johnnie Dodds
Boulevard, and Roper will build an 85-bed facility farther north on U.S. Highway
17.
Trident Health System completed a $60 million renovation to its North
Charleston hospital within the past year. It also plans to build a $10 million
diagnostic imaging facility and put physician offices and diagnostic and
rehabilitation facilities on a 20-acre parcel at Cane Bay Plantation, a
5,000-home community under construction in Berkeley County.
The main goal of the Roper Heart and Vascular Tower is to streamline patient
care. It houses inpatient and outpatient testing and procedures under the same
roof and is designed to move patients seamlessly between, say, the cardiac
catheterization lab and the operating room. For the sick and elderly, and
especially people from rural areas who have trouble getting into Charleston,
doctors say that's helpful for ensuring they get recommended care and
follow-up.
"Currently, things are set up where we're still a cottage industry," said
Roper vascular surgeon Edward Morrison. "You can go to one place to get this,
one place to get that, to the physician's office for this, back to the hospital
for that. It's a huge nuisance for the patient."
The facility's layout also aims to make the patient's in-hospital experience
less complex and confusing. The driveway to its main entrance on Calhoun Street,
for instance, connects to a parking garage, so patients or their families don't
wind up circling downtown's maze of one-way streets while trying to park.
Among other aesthetic and "comfort" touches in the hospital:
--Rooms 1 1/2 times the size of standard hospital rooms, each with a
flat-screen TV;
--More than half of the rooms in the new tower offer views of the Charleston
Harbor, as do several operating and recovery rooms;
--Nurses will be stationed in small pods rather than large central stations,
to be closer to patients; and
--Small, private waiting rooms will allow families to have space to
themselves, as well as a place to confer with physicians.
Then there are the things patients probably won't notice but doctors say are
vital to providing top-notch care.
Each room, for instance, is hardwired for telemetry monitoring, and the
operating room equipment is suspended on ceiling booms, which makes for easy
cleaning and clutter-free floor space. Rooms for less-invasive cardiac and
vascular procedures are built the same way, allowing the rooms to be
reconfigured for emergency surgery if something goes wrong.
The new tower will replace services now housed in Roper's 1940s-era west
wing, where many rooms are small and lack showers. That space eventually might
be converted to offices.
No equipment or furniture will be moved from the existing hospital to the new
tower.
"Roper, no matter what building it has been in for generation after
generation, has had the reputation of a hands-on staff that's available to their
patients," said Dr. William Grossman, chairman of Roper St. Francis Healthcare's
cardiology division. "The building is only an item that allows ease of providing
that best care by giving us the tools to provide what we know we want to
do."
Check it out: A new start for heart health
Lowcountry residents are invited to tour Roper St. Francis Healthcare's new
Heart and Vascular Tower from 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday at Roper Hospital
downtown on Calhoun Street. Roper will offer stroke- and cancer-risk
assessments, blood pressure checks and tests for blood sugar and bone density.
Health information will be on hand, and refreshments and giveaways will be
provided.
If you go
The seventh floor will be dedicated to Dr. Julian Buxton at 11:30 a.m.
Thursday at the Bennett House, 69 Barre St. After a short program, the family
will unveil the portrait commissioned to hang in the entrance to the floor's
Surgical Pavilion. Buxton was on the Roper Hospital board for 20 years.
Coming Wednesday
The Heart and Vascular Tower will feature food that is light and
low-cholesterol. A black-tie gala showcasing the food will be Friday. Get all
the details, In Food
Reach Holly Auer at 937-5560 or hauer@postandcourier.com.
