Cardiology expands to prepare for growing need

Bruce Kinder, Community's vice president for academic affairs, is one of many employees who tourned the newly opened cardiac unit.

Community Regional Medical Center’s cardiology department has addressed the growing need for cardiac care in the Valley with the addition of 50 dedicated beds.

The new eighth-floor cardiology unit features rooms with state-of-the-art monitoring equipment, specialty beds that extend to patient height, private rooms with negative air-flow, plasma flat-screen TVs and showers with easy fold-down seating.

“It’s a beautiful environment,” registered nurse Nadine Hensley said. “I think the color scheme and just the layout, it’s going to be a very nice environment for our patients. Certainly our goal is to provide exceptional care wherever we are but this environment, just the rooms, the color, the lighting, I think it’s going to be a nice experience for our patients.”

Dr. John Ambrose, chief of cardiology and professor of medicine at UCSF Fresno said he was thrilled to have the additional beds.

“We have apparently the second largest emergency room in all of California, the largest and the busiest,” he said. “So the problem is, we have it 24-7 in the emergency room and we provide care to all patients in the Valley, and frequently we are over census, so adding more beds will allow us to meet the needs of the community.”

One of the biggest reasons for the hospital’s increased demand for services is the aging of the baby boomer generation, Dr. Ambrose said. However, many other factors can also affect patient overflow.

“We’re treating more and more patients because there are many patients in the Valley who are obese, diabetic, who smoke, so we have a lot of cardiovascular disease in the Valley including hypertension, coronary artery disease and even a lot of valvular heart disease,” Dr. Ambrose said. “So the more beds we have the better we can serve the community.”

According to recent statistics, heart disease is the No. 1 killer of American men and women. The demand for specialized physicians, nurses and staff continues to grow.

“Community Regional’s physicians and staff are an amazingly competent and compassionate group of people that are committed to providing excellence in cardiac care, Hensley said. “I’m very passionate about cardiovascular nursing.”

This story was reported special by Toni LaSalle. She can be reached at MedWatchToday@communitymedical.org.

Thursday, May 22, 2008