Kent starts performing life-saving coronary angioplasties

John Howell
Posted 8/18/15

It’s been a long road that former president of Kent Hospital Dr. Robert Baute started down in the late 1990s. Now finally, on Aug. 5, Kent – the state’s second largest hospital – performed a …

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Kent starts performing life-saving coronary angioplasties

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It’s been a long road that former president of Kent Hospital Dr. Robert Baute started down in the late 1990s. Now finally, on Aug. 5, Kent – the state’s second largest hospital – performed a procedure that will save the lives of patients with heart disease.

Since successfully completing its first elective coronary angioplasty on Aug. 5, the hospital has scheduled another 20 procedures in the next month.

In a year from now, Dr. Michael Dacey Jr., Kent’s president and COO, expects the hospital will have preformed 200 of the elective procedures, which open a blocked coronary artery by inflating a balloon and inserting a stent. That’s an option and a convenience for area residents who won’t have to travel to Providence or Miriam hospitals, which also perform coronary angioplasties.

The hospital will start performing emergency procedures sometime in February. Dacey is confident the Kent team could perform the emergency procedures now, but work needs to be done to ensure the hospital is prepared to handle from 80 to 100 emergency procedures annually.

A second cardiac catheterization lab, costing about $4.5 million, is in the process of being constructed, and in the months ahead the hospital will work with area first responders on communications and pre-hospital preparation as patients are transported.

The critical minutes between the blockage of an artery when blood flow is impeded and when it can be restored can be the difference between death and life. For the best outcomes, the procedure should be performed within 60 minutes of a sudden heart attack.

As Baute recalls, soon after Dr. Edward Thomas joined the staff, “we started to have discussions.” The hospital argued the 10 to 20 minutes Warwick and residents living south could save by going to Kent would mean lives saved and improved outcomes with reduced convalescence.

But there were concerns of duplicating services and driving up costs. The Health Services Council of the Department of Health denied Kent’s initial application. Even after retiring as hospital president, Baute and his successor, John Hynes, persisted, and in 2008 Kent gained approval for a limited program for emergency procedures. It looked like Kent was set, but because of staffing issues the hospital wasn’t prepared. In addition, Baute said the state insisted that the hospital be capable of providing open-heart surgery as a backup in elective procedures but not for emergencies.

“What is happening now makes much more sense than the way we were forced to approach it before,” Baute said. Now the hospital is starting with the elective procedures, and “we’re doing stable patients before doing emergency patients.”

After having fought so hard for approval, the hospital shelved the plan. Last year, Care New England reapplied and Kent’s proposal was approved.

“The cardiology program across Care New England, and here at Kent, has grown tremendously over the past several years to provide access to and treatment for general and complex cardiovascular care,” said Dr. Chester Hedgepeth, MD, PhD., chief of cardiology at Kent and the leader of the Brigham and Women’s Cardiovascular Associates at Care New England, executive chief of cardiology at CNE in a statement.

Baute agrees. He said the level of cardiac care at Kent has significantly advanced with Brigham and Women’s.

“This is a whole team,” says Dacey, naming doctors Thomas, David Williams and Ashish Shah as the key team members. “Something the size of Kent really needs this.”

Data presented to the state Department of Health during the approval process demonstrated that patients residing south of the metro Providence area – more than 300,000 Rhode Islanders – would benefit greatly from expanded access to coronary angioplasty via the new program at Kent. According to hospital projections, many patients residing in both Kent and Washington counties will see their risks of dying reduced by almost 10 percent as a result of the new program at Kent due to decreased transport and transfer times. Also, because more heart muscle will be saved by earlier intervention, the risk of developing congestive heart failure and disability will likewise be reduced substantially, according to a hospital release.

Baute said he was delighted to learn the first elective procedure had been successfully performed, and with completion of the second lab – thereby eliminating the possibility of any delay with an emergency – he’s anxious to see the next major step.

“Kent Hospital and Care New England have done an excellent job building a strong clinical program helping to meet the needs of Rhode Islanders locally,” said Williams, senior physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Care New England director of invasive cardiac services in s statement. “Building off of this success and the further development and training of clinical staff, Kent Hospital is now able to provide a critical, life-saving, procedure that is ‘standard of care’ and that will better serve the community and enhance the care provided here.”

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