Bringing advanced heart care close to home is the goal that has made Southern Illinois Healthcare and our hospitals leaders in cardiac care in southern Illinois. In the last ten years Memorial Hospital of Carbondale has introduced cardiac catheterization and open heart surgery to the area and, with Herrin Hospital and St. Joseph Memorial Hospital, advanced cardiac stress testing and diagnostic imaging. In addition, Herrin Hospital, and St. Joseph Memorial Hospital have developed nationally recognized outpatient cardiac rehabilitation programs.
Our partnership with Prairie Heart Institute, St. John’s Hospital in Springfield, Illinois, one of the highest ranked heart centers in America, has enabled us to be a leader in providing open-heart surgery and other cardiac services to southern Illinois. Our proven team, our top ranking partner and our new facilities provide our patients and physicians access to top-level expert care, close to home.
Today, heart specialists and heart surgeons at Southern Illinois Healthcare hospitals are routinely providing state-of-the-art cardiac services such as coronary bypass surgery, “beating heart” surgery, bi-ventricular pacemakers, balloon angioplasties, stents, and surgical ablation for atrial fibrillation.
Our partnership with Prairie Heart Institute, St. John’s Hospital in Springfield, Illinois, one of the highest ranked heart centers in America, has enabled us to be a leader in providing open-heart surgery and other cardiac services to southern Illinois. Our proven team, our top ranking partner and our new facilities provide our patients and physicians access to top-level expert care, close to home.
"This partnership has been extremely successful in bringing modern, comprehensive heart care to the people of southern Illinois. Our goal was to start a program that was the highest quality from the word go. Thanks to this partnership, that is exactly what we have today,” said Tom Firestone, MD, president and CEO, Southern Illinois Healthcare.
While the groundwork for cardiac services was developed over many years, the Prairie Heart partnership was formed in December 1999. It has proven to be a tremendous opportunity for the residents of southern Illinois to receive heart care because it is modeled after a premier cardiac center.
Since 1999, the partnership has brought many new, highly skilled cardiologists to the area through Prairie Cardiovascular and created a successful, comprehensive heart surgery program with SIU Physicians and Surgeons. Today, Prairie Heart Institute Memorial Hospital of Carbondale services include diagnostic cardiac catheterizations to diagnose heart disorders and balloon angioplasties, stenting, and open-heart surgery.
Catheterizations are performed in our two modern, fixed-site, catheterization labs at Prarie Heart Institute-Carbondale and surgeries take place in our surgical wing at MHC, specially equipped just for heart procedures.
The program also includes high-quality cardiac rehabilitation at Carbondale, Herrin Hospital and St. Joseph Memorial Hospital in Murphysboro to get patients with heart disorders back on their feet. In addition, Prairie doctors provide services at SIH hospitals and other off-site clinics and offices in Herrin, West Frankfort, Anna, Harrisburg and DuQuoin.
The partnership has also been instrumental in developing our cardiac team that includes educational staff, surgical nurses and technicians, perfusion specialists, recovery and inpatient rehabilitation staff and many others.
Request HeartLines -- your free heart health newsletter.