Scripps Clinic to Unveil La Jolla Additions : Expansion Puts It in Big Leagues in Complicated Cardiac Procedures

A $34.8-million expansion that will poise Scripps Clinic & Research Foundation to seek an increasing share of the complicated heart operations and other cardiac procedures in San Diego is being unveiled this weekend at the La Jolla institution.

The expansion at the 173-bed Green Hospital will give it 10 full-service operating rooms, as many as exist at San Diego County hospitals with three times as many beds.

Eventually, doctors at the new Heart, Lung and Vascular Center at Green hope to leapfrog past Sharp Memorial Hospital, which does heart transplants, and begin doing heart-lung transplants, said Dr. Allen D. Johnson, director of the center.

A heart-lung transplant program is also being considered by UC San Diego Medical Center. A leading heart surgeon at the University of Minnesota is being considered to head the program.

The high-tech additions in the 87,000-square-foot Scripps expansion include one heart catheterization room that in an emergency can convert into an open-heart operating room within five minutes.

There and in two other catheterization laboratories, doctors will thread tiny tubes into the heart to open up clogged arteries with small balloons, with a small rotor or with a special laser that turns on only in the presence of artery-clogging plaque.

Maximum Physical Efficiency

Except for that “smart” laser, which is in use only in two other medical centers in California, these services are available already in various forms at other San Diego hospitals, Johnson acknowledged. At nearby Scripps Memorial Hospital-La Jolla, about 1,500 heart catheterizations are done every year, officials there say.

The new Scripps Clinic center will pull together heart, lung and vascular services in one place that also is conducting basic research on the causes of cardiac disease, Johnson said.

The center was designed for maximum physical efficiency, with cardiac operating rooms just a few dozen feet from the catheterization rooms, doctors’ offices and the intensive care unit.

“On a dead run, you can get anywhere in 10 seconds,” Johnson said.

The expansion also includes more critical-care beds, for a total of 24, again bringing the small hospital to equal footing with San Diego County’s largest hospitals. This also will set Green Hospital up to compete for seriously ill cardiac patients with those hospitals.

Richard M. Bracken, director of Green Hospital for Hospital Corp. of America, which contracts to run the facility, said the cardiac center expects to draw about 80% of its patients from San Diego and elsewhere in Southern California.

An open house and health fair to show off the addition are scheduled from noon to 5 p.m. today at the hospital. There will be tours, health screenings, demonstrations, music and refreshments.