NCH is committed to providing exceptional and comprehensive heart, stroke, and vascular care to our community. Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States and nearly 70% of NCH’s heart and stroke patients requiring interventions live within 10 miles of the downtown Baker campus. We are focused on providing clinical excellence with world-class physicians, bolstered by our clinical research and education initiatives. The new building will be home to the heart, vascular, and stroke services and is necessary for us to succeed in delivering top-quality patient care.

NCH sits literally and figuratively in the heart of our community – and we must plan for the future of healthcare delivery as the needs of our community evolve.

Today, many of our services and teams are spread out in multiple buildings, negatively impacting the patient experience, and reducing efficiencies. Housing all our cardiac and stroke services under one roof allows us to better collaborate and provide integrated patient care. The new building will be connected to our current downtown NCH Baker Hospital, and we are designing and planning it to provide new technologies and efficiencies that will ensure the best possible patient outcomes and patient experiences. The proximity of the new proposed building to our main hospital is strategic and will allow for the integration and purposeful use of our recently renovated emergency department and operating suites.

We have already received accolades and recognition for our exceptional quality and patient outcomes. Our focus on continued excellence means working to provide additional services and procedures for our patients. We are actively recruiting nationally acclaimed physicians which will advance our research institute where we currently have over a dozen clinical trials underway. While the building is essential to meet the needs of our community, it will also be a symbol of the innovative patient-centered integrated care that we seek to deliver.

We will gain talent and expertise in cardiothoracic surgery for the treatment of complex valvular disease for the sickest of patients with failing heart, and the inception of disease-specific Centers of Excellence for patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and other complex aortopathies. The new institute will enable access to novel mechanical circulatory support therapies for patients with end-stage heart disease and the collection of contemporary minimally invasive percutaneous heart therapies like no other program in the region.

Diagrams and elevations of the building can be found on our website: NCHmd.org/critical-care). Plans call for a modern, state of the art building that will be a beautiful addition to our campus and one that our entire community will be proud of. Based on concerns about building heights which we have been hearing from residents, we have already amended the plan from a six-story to a five-story building. The trees and vegetation that are already on campus will remain and more foliage will be brought in to further enhance the beauty of our campus while remaining true to the dense landscape feel that is symbolic of old Naples.

The proximity of the new proposed building to our main hospital is strategic and will allow for the integration and purposeful use of our existing three new state-of-the-art cardiovascular ORs and cardiovascular intensive care units. The addition of two-three additional cardiovascular ORs and 20+ other cardiac intensive care units will be vital to care for the needs of our community.

We have historically performed approximately 450-500 open-heart procedures per year. With the addition of the new institute and expertise for higher acuity care, our predicted surgical volume will increase but it’s too early to determine how much. We do anticipate an increase in the number of electrophysiology, endovascular and structural heart interventions we will be able to accommodate in the near-term.

With the increasing demand of cardiac services, our expectations are to double the number of hybrid, catheterization lab and electrophysiology suites.

We predict that close to 30-40% of cardiothoracic surgical cases and other cases are still being referred out of the region and state. Our vision is to ensure our community can stay close to home for their care.

Our goal is to build a robust heart failure program. Heart failure remains one of the leading causes of cardiac death and the #1 cause of hospital readmissions in America. Offering our patients in the community the full breadth of therapies to treat end-stage heart failure including LVAD and heart transplant may be necessary one day. The inception of these programs may evolve with time, but only if the demands of our community and our patients are there.

We have modeled many of our strategic objectives around the key foundational elements of every existing top heart program in America, while staying true to being an independent, community-based healthcare organization.

NCH was built by the community, for the community. As a not-for-profit organization, we will need the support of our entire community to build a top-quality cardiac and stroke program. We are in the mid stages of planning a fundraising campaign to transform our ability to deliver world-class care and build this new facility. The projected cost is $250M; $200M of which has already been raised through philanthropy.

Yes, we improved cardiac services on the north end of town as well with the addition of two new cath labs at North Naples Hospital and there is plenty of room to grow and expand services to keep pace with the growing northern section of Collier County. NCH monitors the growth of our community closely to determine where services are needed most, and with nearly 70% of all stroke and cardiac patients living within ten miles of the downtown Baker campus, that is why the decision was made to place it there.

The cardiac program at NCH, today referred to as the Rooney Heart Institute, was established over 25 years ago. Our award-winning institute is recognized for its Code Save-A-Heart Program, Open Heart Surgery Program, Structural Heart Program (TAVR and WATCHMAN) and innovative, state-of-the-art technology.

Facts about our current program:

• Rated in the 95th percentile of STEMI performing hospitals in America and safest place to have a heart attack.
• NCH currently has 20 cardiologists and three heart surgeons.
• The Society for Thoracic Surgeons (STS) awarded NCH a top three-star rating for its patient care and outcomes in isolated coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). The three-star rating denotes the highest category of quality.
• Our specialists have practiced at some of the top systems in the country including Mass General, Emory Healthcare, Cleveland Clinic and more.
• We have evolved to embrace the contemporary practice of a minimalistic approach to TAVR, using conscious sedation to assure patients an expedited recovery and next day discharge in over 90% of our patients.
• Our door to balloon time is 38 minutes. The national average is 75 minutes.
• We have a world-class, innovative SIM Center where clinicians can practice procedures.