Silver Cross Hospital is Red with Pride During American Heart Month

This year marks the 5^th anniversary of Silver Cross Hospital’s open-heart surgery program, now one of the busiest in the state of Illinois. It’s also the 1^st anniversary of the hospital’s Advanced Heart Failure Clinic, which is making tremendous strides in elevating the quality of life while preventing repeat hospitalizations for those with this chronic condition. 

More than five years ago, Silver Cross Hospital’s late President and Chief Executive Officer Ruth Colby had a vision for bringing the best heart care possible to patients in Will County and the surrounding areas. So Silver Cross partnered with Cardiothoracic & Vascular Associates and renowned cardiothoracic surgeon, Dr. Pat Pappas, to develop an open-heart surgery program at Silver Cross Hospital. 

“To have a physician of his caliber, one who has been practicing more than 30 years, has developed numerous programs from scratch and is an award-winning educator of the next generation of cardiac physicians, has been transformational,” said Marybeth Antone, Vice President of Clinical Operations at the 348-bed hospital. 

The heart surgery program performs 300 surgical cases each year and is part of the Midwest Institute for Heart at Silver Cross. The institute brings together experts from multiple specialties to deliver advanced and high-quality heart care across the continuum. 

This continuum of services includes preventive services, cardiology, interventional cardiology, electrophysiology, heart failure, minimally invasive heart procedures, cardiac surgery, cardiac rehabilitation and more. “In just five short years, the Midwest Institute for Heart at Silver Cross has become a destination program for patients in need of heart care and delivers nationally recognized outcomes,” Antone said. 

To celebrate the program’s success and to bring awareness to heart disease and prevention, Silver Cross is bathed in red spotlights during February, American Heart Month. This is the third year in a row the hospital has lit up the front of the hospital red. 

Silver Cross Advancing and Earning Accolades for Heart and Surgical Care

For the past five years, Silver Cross has been among the busiest heart hospitals in Illinois, ranking in the top 10 hospitals for number of heart surgeries, and recently was named the No. 1 Hospital in Illinois for Surgical Care by Healthgrades, the leading online database used by consumers to choose a hospital or doctor. That ranking includes superior clinical outcomes for 15 different types of surgery, including heart bypass surgery and heart valve surgery. 

Healthgrades Director of Quality Solutions Nicole Patzer visited Silver Cross Jan. 31 to officially present the award to the hospital. In her remarks, Patzer called Silver Cross “a role model for healthcare in America.” She cited the hospital’s superior patient outcomes and paraphrased the Silver Cross tagline, adding, “This is the way patients should be treated. To be ranked #1 in the state for surgical care specifically is an extraordinary feat because it is the specialty with the widest lens. A hospital ranked in surgical care must have superior clinical outcomes across 15 of the most common in-hospital surgical procedures in the US. The award is based on hospitals with the highest volume-weighted average of these areas, (which is) no easy feat.”

“It truly takes a village,” Antone said. “Our exceptional surgical staff work side by side with the surgeons and anesthesia, but the patient experience and ultimate outcome is the result of support from many different people: our Sterile Processing Department staff who prepare the sterile supplies and instrumentation used in surgery; our Surgery Pre-Post Recovery team who prepare the patient before their surgery and provide emotional support during a very vulnerable time; our Post Anesthesia Care Unit staff who recover patients immediately post-op as they emerge from anesthesia; and our inpatient surgical nursing unit staff who care for the patient before their discharge home.” 

She added, “Of course, the team is fully supported by our Administration and our Board.  We are fortunate to have extremely talented surgeons who choose our hospital for the surgical care of their patients. I am so honored to have received this award on behalf of the entire team!” 

Since the program’s inception in May 2019, the hospital has performed more than 1,100 open heart surgeries, more than 120 transcatheter aortic valve replacements (TAVR), which debuted in 2021, and nearly 200 aortic valve replacements. 

Silver Cross is also advancing in other areas across the heart care continuum. Advanced heart failure is complex and has a high readmission rate, which is why the Midwest Institute for Heart at Silver Cross developed a Heart Failure Clinic in 2023. The clinic has a dedicated nurse practitioner, and cardiologists fellowship-trained in heart failure, who partner with patients and their cardiology teams to closely monitor symptoms virtually, provide education and coordinate timely care to prevent a hospital readmission.  

In December 2023, Silver Cross became the first site in the world to implant a heart failure device in a patient enrolled in the groundbreaking Proactive 2 Heart Failure Study. 

Dedicated Cardiovascular Unit

Miesha Landers, Manager of the Silver Cross Cardiovascular Unit, is passionate about leading her team of compassionate and highly skilled critical care nurses whose focus is on providing excellent care and making sure that patients are well educated about what to expect before and after their heart procedure at Silver Cross.

“It makes me proud when I receive letters from former patients telling me how thankful they are for the nurses who cared for them here,” she said. “We have an amazing heart program and a fantastic team. I’m very proud to be part of it.” 

Prevalence of Heart Disease

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, heart disease is the leading cause of death for men, women, and people of most racial and ethnic groups in the United States – and has been since 1950. One person dies every 33 seconds in the United States from cardiovascular disease. 

In the United States, someone has a heart attack every 40 seconds, and one in five heart attacks is silent, which means the damage has been done, but the person is not aware of it. 

Early detection is key to preventing heart disease, especially in high-risk candidates. High blood pressure, high blood cholesterol and smoking are key risk factors for heart disease, as well as family history. 

Silver Cross Hospital offers a number of preventive heart services such as the $49 Heart Scan, which can show calcium build-up, an early indicator of heart disease.

 For more information, visit www.silvercross.org/heart