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The Heart Center

What is The Heart Center?

The Heart Center, located at Mercy Hospital, is an expanded cardiovascular services program.

In 2009, the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) ranked Mercy Hospital's heart surgery program as among the best in the nation by awarding its three-star national quality rating – the highest category of quality achieved under the STS quality rating system. Approximately 15% of the 900 participating hospitals across the country received a three-star rating for the period covering January 2008 to December 2008.

The Heart Center offers:

• Open heart surgery
• Coronary balloon angioplasty
• Coronary artery stent placement
• Electrophysiology services for irregular heart rhythms
• Cardiac implants
• The Heart Center is the only place in Western New York that performs percutaneous closure for PFO in patients with stroke. Mercy Hospital is the only hospital in Western New York with a comprehensive program for the use of ventricular assist devices (VAD).

The Heart Center includes:

• A six-bed post-operative unit
• Two dedicated cardiac surgical suites
• Three advanced interventional cardiac catheterization laboratories

In addition, Catholic Health continues to offer many important heart health, diagnostic and wellness services to patients such as:

• Diet and nutrition counseling
• Weight control counseling
• Smoking cessation
• Cardiac rehabilitation
• Stress testing
• EKGs, echocardiograms, and other diagnostic cardiac procedures

Why The Heart Center?

Coronary artery disease, identified as Western New York’s largest health problem, continues to grow. To compound this troubling problem, New York State has the highest mortality rate from heart disease in the nation. Worse yet, the Western New York region ranks near the top in New York State in heart disease mortality.

WNY also has a large elderly population – people who are more likely to have heart disease and Catholic Health is the region’s major provider of care to seniors. We are expanding our resources to attend to the needs of this rapidly growing population. Care for the elderly will continue to be a major healthcare issue as the baby boomers reach their 50’s and 60’s.

The Heart Center philosophy stresses the seamless delivery of care – from pre-admission testing, to treatment, to care after discharge.

Our highly competent and committed team is interdisciplinary in its approach to advanced cardiac care, and seeks to anticipate the unique needs of our patients, especially those most vulnerable. Our dedicated staff helps to ease the anxiety during each patient’s course of treatment. The cardiac care plan is innovative through all phases of treatment, and our patients are an active participant in this process. In addition to patient involvement, the concerns and needs of patient families and other loved ones will be addressed.