Carondelet Invests $17M to Relocate Heart Institute to St. Mary’s Hospital

By Camelia Bulea, Associate Editor

Carondelet Health Network plans to relocate its Heart & Vascular Institute to the Carondelet St. Mary’s Hospital campus. In a statement, the company said the first phase of the relocation will be complete by early November.

The new location provides many advantages for patients and their families including easier access to the Institute from I-10 and I-19, helicopter access for emergent cases, new technologies and the capability to expand and grow the Ministry’s cardiothoracic surgery program. Patients will continue to be cared for at Carondelet Heart & Vascular Institute’s River and Stone facility until early November, according to Tucson News Now. The first open heart surgery at St. Mary’s will be set for Nov. 7, 2012.

Carondelet will invest about $17 million in the construction of the new facility, which is expected to completed by May 2013. The new building will contain:

• a dedicated Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit
• a specially appointed hospital wing with all-private rooms for the care and recovery
• a hybrid OR, which will allow surgeons and cardiologists to perform the most modern, minimally invasive cardiovascular procedures

St. Mary’s Hospital has been ranked among the top 5 percent of hospitals nationwide for clinical excellence by HealthGrades two years in a row. Carondelet Heart & Vascular Institute is a previous Thomson Reuters Top 100 Hospital for Cardiovascular Care.

In other news, the Tucson Airport Authority has approved a $68.3 million budget for 2013, representing a 57 percent increase over the current year’s budget of $43.5 million, according to Inside Tucson Business. Most of the new budget will serve capital improvement projects, which will largely be funded through grants.

Photo rendering of former Carondelet Heart & Vascular Institute, courtesy of MOHR Health

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