New Heart Institute Opens With Innovative Equipment

Described as the first facility of its kind in the Southeast area, a special institute to treat and examine heart ailments has opened at the La Mirada Medical Center.

The $4-million Southern California Heart Institute, a joint venture between Nu-Med Hospitals Inc. and more than 40 physicians, opened last week at the 146-bed medical center. Equipped with state-of-the-art surgery and monitoring devices to detect and treat heart diseases, officials say the institute will serve patients from well beyond Southeast Los Angeles County. Hospital officials expect the institute to be fully operational by August.

“We will install equipment that will give physicians greater flexibility in fully examining the patient, which means more quality comprehensive care . . . ,” said Noel Hecht, executive director of the medical center.

At the core of the new institute are two new operating rooms, one of which will be equipped with an innovative operating table that allows physicians to perform both open-heart surgeries and angioplasties, which use a balloon-like catheter to unblock arteries around the heart.

Until recently, different tables were required for the two procedures, said David R. Watkins, a spokesman for the hospital. The institute, he said, is the first medical facility in the western United States to have such a table, which is equipped with digital and video monitors.

The heart institute also will have a special diagnostic device which will allow physicians to examine all vessels of the heart without repositioning the patient. The machine has two arms, one with an image intensifier and the other with an X-ray tube that can move around the patient and project all angles.

“The combination of all of this equipment will allow us . . . to reduce patient stay and improve rehabilitation,” said Jackie R. See, chairman of the new institute.