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The nation's capital's first dedicated heart and vascular hospital has opened on the campus of MedStar Washington Hospital Center. The Nancy and Harold Zirkin Heart & Vascular Hospital is a 164-bed state-of-the-art facility, which will be the cornerstone of the MedStar Heart & Vascular Institute and will advance cardiovascular care for patients throughout the Washington and mid-Atlantic regions.

“This is an extraordinary milestone for our patients,” said Stuart F. Seides, MD, physician executive director, MedStar Heart & Vascular Institute. “The new heart and vascular hospital, its construction, its design, its philosophy, was designed with patients’ needs in mind, coupled with our long-standing commitment to providing the most advanced heart and vascular care.”

As one of the highest-volume and nationally recognized heart and vascular surgery programs in the nation, MedStar Washington Hospital Center is the founding member of MedStar Heart & Vascular Institute, which has cared for patients with highly complex cardiovascular disorders for nearly 60 years. It has been at the forefront of innovative new treatments and prevention of heart and vascular disease.

The four-story, 160,000-square-foot facility centralized all cardiovascular services in the Hospital Center’s North Addition. The new space ushers in a new model of care and patient experience. Patients with similar medical conditions are cared for on designated specialty-care units that have dedicated teams of cardiologists, cardiac and vascular surgeons, nurse practitioners and nurses, to collaboratively deliver the highest quality cardiovascular care and achieve the best patient outcomes.

“We want to make the overall experience for the patients and their families as good as it can be,” added Dr. Seides. “Every team member who works at the heart and vascular hospital takes great pride in their work. As a team, we are all focused on patients getting the best clinical care possible. And the only way to safely provide that kind of highly advanced care is through highly coordinated teamwork.”

Increased critical care capacity was an important linchpin in the new design of the heart and vascular hospital. The 44-bed cardiac intensive care unit on the second floor was built to meet the increasingly complex needs of patients from all over the region. The ICU rooms are much larger, with wider doorways facilitating access for team members and advanced equipment to the bedside. Each ICU room is equipped with ceiling-mounted booms carrying medical gases, and electric and data outlets, offering greater flexibility and providing clinicians unrestricted access to the patient from all four sides of the bed.

“The booms give us 360-degree access to patients. Beds pushed up against walls limit our ability to perform certain procedures in patient rooms. Opening the space in this way allows us to position patients, ourselves, and needed equipment for optimal care,” concluded Dr. Seides.

Construction of the Nancy and Harold Zirkin Heart & Vascular Hospital took three years to complete and was divided into four phases. In January 2015, a 60-bed inpatient unit opened to patients on the fourth floor of the hospital, followed by the third floor inpatient unit. The first floor, with a separate entrance and lobby, opened in December and is solely dedicated to outpatient care. The second floor cardiac ICU, the final phase of construction, opened in July.

The Nancy and Harold Zirkin Heart & Vascular Hospital was named to recognize long-time Washingtonians Nancy and Harold Zirkin for their generosity and extraordinary philanthropic support to the heart and vascular hospital. Their $10 million leadership gift is the largest single contribution in the history of MedStar Washington Hospital Center and MedStar Health.

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How NOT to perform sterile procedures

(can you spot at least 10 breaches in sterile technique?)