Rising to the challenge of surgical demands
While the demand of COVID-19 on our health care system decreases, regular services are returning to full capacity and stretching to meet growing demands.
Alberta’s Surgical Initiative has made investments to accelerate surgical procedures up 150 percent to address the backlog resulting from the pandemic.
Meeting Albertan’s surgical needs requires the mobilization of operating rooms that can support a variety of complex procedures and advancing minimally invasive approaches that decrease patient risk and recovery time.
Mobilizing a new operating room
$1M
TOTAL
INVESTMENT
To support additional surgeries, the Peter Lougheed Centre was in a unique situation to mobilize a dormant operating room space. A variety of equipment was needed to support several surgical programs.
Thanks to donors, Calgary Health Foundation was able to invest $1 million to equip and operationalize a sixteenth operating room. Because donors provided equipment funding, it sped up the process for Alberta Health Services to support operational costs. Without donor support, this operating room would not have been leveraged.
The mobilization of an additional operating room allows Peter Lougheed Centre to perform an additional 1,000 surgeries per year for the next 10 years.
Empowering the operating room with the right tools for the job
$180K
TOTAL
INVESTMENT
The increase in surgical activity and growing demand for minimally invasive surgeries has increased the demand for C-Arm technology to provide fluoroscopic imaging in many of the 29 operating rooms running daily at the Foothills Medical Centre. This equipment provides high-resolution images that are critical and unique to the hospital. This technology informs some of the most complex and advanced surgeries, such as thoracic, spine, neuro, cardiac, level 1 trauma, and head/neck oncology surgery.
A C-Arm is a mobile piece of equipment that provides real-time imaging to guide diagnosis and the placement of devices, including cardiac device implants/extractions, neurosurgery spinal surgery, orthopedic trauma, orthopedic spinal surgery, thoracic surgery and cancer surgery. These surgeries only occur at Foothills Medical Centre due to the highly specialized teams and care required.
Supporting minimally invasive cardiac procedures
$1.9M
TOTAL
INVESTMENT
Cardiac catheterization labs (or cath labs) are essential spaces for advancing cardiac care for patients of all ages.
The cath lab houses special imaging equipment that is used to see arteries and determine how well blood is flowing to and from the heart. This information is critical in diagnosing and treating blockages and other problems in the arteries.
Because of donors, a redeveloped cath lab at the Foothills Medical Centre will include advanced diagnostic equipment that will also integrate with Alberta Health Services’ single medical record system.
Donors are advancing care for more than 11,000 patients each year who require procedures in the cath labs.
By the numbers: cardiac cath lab procedures
2,200+
procedures performed annually
Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI)
PCI is a non-surgical method used to open narrowed arteries that supply the heart muscle (coronary arteries) with blood using small balloons and stents.
680
ablations are performed annually
Cardiac ablations
This procedure is used to support patients experiencing life-altering arrhythmias by scarring the electrical conduction pathways using cryo or radiofrequency ablation techniques.
6,400+
procedures performed annually
Diagnostic Angiography
Angiography is a procedure used to identify a narrowing or blockage in the arteries in the heart.
1,100+
device implants are performed at the Footills Medical Centre annually
CIED implantation
Implantation of cardiac implantable electrical devices (pacemakers and defibrillators) are performed both in the cardiac cath lab and the operating room.
920
STEMI patients per year
Southern Alberta STEMI program
Supporting Southern and Central Alberta, the cath lab provides care to patients experiencing acute myocardial infarction. In collaboration with EMS, Rural and Urban Emergency Departments and Urgent Care Centres, patients are cared for in the cardiac cath lab to unblock culprit lesions causing Myocardial Infarction.
* data for 2021/2022