News Releases

Heart Institutes to be Added at Three Hospitals

Memorial Hermann addresses community's current and future heart needs

Houston, Texas, April 23, 2004 -- Memorial Hermann Healthcare System, one of the leading providers of cardiovascular care, announced today major steps in a strategy to address the current and future cardiovascular care needs of the Greater Houston community and patients from around the world. Memorial Hermann is committed to ensuring access to high-quality, innovative heart care and, as part of this commitment, Memorial Hermann Memorial City Hospital and Memorial Hermann Southwest Hospital will build heart institutes on their campuses. Memorial Hermann Memorial City Hospital will add a $35 million facility in its new east tower and Memorial Hermann Southwest will construct a freestanding $65 million heart institute on its campus. For pediatric patients, Memorial Hermann Children’s Hospital has established a children’s heart institute.

“The skilled physicians associated with Memorial Hermann hospitals annually perform more than 50,000 diagnostic, interventional and surgical cardiovascular procedures. Many have achieved international renown. The expanded programs will allow more patients to access their services and to receive treatment in state-of-the-art settings equipped with the latest tools and technologies,” said Dan Wolterman, President and CEO, Memorial Hermann Healthcare System.

When it opens in the summer of 2006, The Heart Institute at Memorial Hermann Southwest Hospital will be a freestanding facility that is dedicated to cardiovascular care. The seven-story, 200,000-square-foot Institute will combine patient care and physician office space. It will include 45 beds (with space to accommodate an additional 15), an intensive care unit, five cardiac catheterization labs, three operating rooms, a noninvasive diagnostic center, and more.

Said Chief of Staff Mark Lambert, a cardiologist: “The new Heart Institute at Memorial Hermann Southwest Hospital makes a major statement about our commitment to the heart health of the
people in the communities served by our program. I’m excited to be a part of it.”

The Heart Institute at Memorial Hermann Memorial City Hospital will consolidate the hospital’s quality, comprehensive heart services on the top three floors of the new east tower building, which opened in 2003. The 90,000-square-foot Institute will include 65 beds, five cardiac catheterization labs, expanded cardiac imaging and diagnostic capabilities and more. The build-out is expected to be complete in summer 2005.

“The Heart Institute at Memorial Hermann Memorial City Hospital will enable the physicians, nurses, and staff here to continue to provide the latest, state-of-the-art heart care in a community hospital setting,” said medical staff cardiologist Stuart Jacobson, M.D.

The programs at both Memorial Hermann Memorial City and Memorial Hermann Southwest will offer advanced cardiac catheterization technology, electrophysiology labs and cardiovascular MRI.

At Memorial Hermann Children’s Hospital, renowned pediatric cardiovascular surgeon Brad Allen, M.D., is medical director of the new Children’s Heart Institute and professor of cardiothoracic and vascular surgery and chief of pediatric cardiac surgery at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston. “Memorial Hermann Children’s is the best kept secret in Houston,” said Allen, who came to the hospital from Hope Children’s Hospital, Chicago. “All of us who are associated with the Children’s Heart Institute look forward to bringing the very best in cardiovascular care to the children of Texas and beyond.”

“Memorial Hermann is committed to providing easy access to high quality cardiovascular programs for adults and children,” said Dan Wolterman, President and CEO. In addition to its comprehensive heart programs at Memorial Hermann Memorial City, Memorial Hermann Southwest and Memorial Hermann Hospital, Memorial Hermann hospitals in The Woodlands, Northwest and Southeast all offer cardiac catheterization and cardiac rehab programs.

Memorial Hermann, a not-for-profit health care system, provides quality, comprehensive programs and services for a person’s whole life. Through its 11 hospitals located in the Texas Medical Center and the greater Houston area, Memorial Hermann takes a patient centric approach to healthcare -- offering the convenience of health care in neighborhoods where people live and work as well as easy access to the resources and technology of a university-affiliated teaching hospital.

For more information, contact Media Relations.