FAIRBANKS -- Fairbanks Memorial Hospital touted its new $14 million heart center last week with a grand opening and tours of the 12,747-square-foot, state-of-the-art facility.
The Harry and Sally Porter Heart Center opened in February and offers a variety of services, such as angioplasty, that were unavailable in Fairbanks before 2007.
The new facility has three cardiologists, a conference room where doctors can discuss cases with colleagues anywhere in the world, a rehab center on par with local athletic facilities and technology galore.
Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Hospital officials estimate Fairbanks heart patients will see a 2 percent to 3 percent better chance of survival because of the new and enhanced services at the Porter heart center.
"This is one of the destinations of choice for people having heart attacks," cardiologist Joseph Johns said.
About 90 percent of the care heart patients might need is available at the facility, Johns said.
Patients needing heart surgery, such as coronary bypass surgery, will still need to travel outside of Fairbanks.
"But they get a lot of their follow-up care done here," heart center director Belinda Brumett said.
The heart center sits between the hospital's cancer and outpatient surgery centers.
The man for whom it's named, Harry Porter, is one of the founders of the Greater Fairbanks Community Hospital Foundation, which paid about $11 million to build the new center. The rest of the money came from private donations, including $500,000 from BP Alaska. Sally is Harry's wife.
The facility allows the hospital to expand and consolidate services to about 400 heart patients per year, Brumett said.
In 2007, the cardiology clinic could accommodate 12 to 15 patients per day. The new facility can handle as many as 50.
"The biggest thing for us is the volume of patients we can see now," Brumett said. "It's really brought cardiology into one focused area."
One facet of the facility is cardiac rehabilitation. The new cardiac rehab room is 2,900 square feet with 22 pieces of exercise equipment, including treadmills, stationary bikes and ellipticals.
The rehab room is almost three times larger than the previous space, which had room for only seven pieces of exercise equipment.
"We had everything kind of jammed into a very small space," nurse manager Ivy Hollinrake said.
Hospital foundation President Jeff Cook said the new heart center has been about eight years in the making.
By AMANDA BOHMAN
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner