Southlake Regional Health Centre's first chief of cardiac health says the heart is like a house, it needs plumbers and electricians to do repairs.
Dr. Christopher Overgaard leads a staff of 460 who perform those "repairs.”
The regional department is the fourth-largest comprehensive heart program in the province, providing care to more than 3,100 patients between April 1, 2023 and March 31 of this year.
“There has been a steady increase in patients over the last few years, following a decrease in patient volumes due to the pandemic. Southlake is now seeing close to its pre-pandemic patient volumes,” according to Angelica Cruz, a Southlake spokesperson.
The hospital serves patients throughout York Region, Simcoe and Muskoka. Some are transferred from other hospitals in the region, while some are moved to the cardiac unit from within Southlake. In other cases, after being screened with a cardiogram in an ambulance, emergency patients go straight to Southlake.
The severity and circumstances of the symptoms determine where you end up in the hospital’s extensive cardiac department.
Almost a third of patients require diagnostic cardiac catheterizations, which take place in the “cath lab.”
“If a patient in this region is having an active heart attack and calls 911, they go directly to the cath lab for intervention,” said Cruz.
“If a patient comes to through an emergency department, either at Southlake or at another hospital within our region, the patient will be transported by paramedics to Southlake’s cath lab.”
Prior to being named chief of cardiac care, Overgaard was the director of Southlake's cath lab. His practice focused on complex coronary interventional cardiology, a medical specialty that uses small tubes known as catheters to provide life-saving care without open-heart surgery.
“It’s quite impressive how quickly a patient can go from really severe pain to sleeping peacefully,” he said.
The second most common procedure is percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), comprising 23 per cent of all cardiac procedures performed between April 1, 2023, and March 31 of this year.
Some areas are busier than others depending on the day. The cardiac intensive care unit has a general whir of activity but is much calmer than Hollywood dramatizations would imagine it.
On a recent relatively quiet day recently in the cardiac ward, there are some open beds in the short-stay unit, where patients are set up to be monitored.
A central hub of computers monitor the vitals of all the patients.
The hallways are lined with gurneys, as storage space is limited in a hospital that needs every available space for patients.
The hospital, which is marking its 100th anniversary, has not seen a significant acute care capital expansion in 20 years.
Southlake is converting ambulance bays into additional emergency department space and has released a call for tenders.
Cruz said the appointment of Overgaard is a step in plans to continue to grow the cardiac department, as well as the hospital, in whatever fashion that happens.
“Southlake, we’re bursting at our seams, there’s room to grow, especially as the community is growing and aging, and we look forward to seeing what that looks like.”
