Oslo Heart Center

 

History                                       
Oslo Heart Center (OHC) is a cardiac surgical clinic established in 1989 by the Norwegian Government. The institution was initiated to increase the domestic capacity for coronary artery bypass surgery. During the late 1970's and 1980's, many patients from our country were referred to clinics abroad, most often to the United Kingdom. In November, 2000, a Section for Cardiology, including Coronary Angiography and PCI was started.

Organization
Oslo Heart Center was established as a public foundation and the clinic is run on a non-profit basis. Since January 1, 2003, Oslo Heart Center became a part of the National University Hospital (Rikshospitalet). The hospital costs for each patient is covered by the Social Security. 

Staff  
Chief Surgeon: Eivind Øvrum, MD, PhD,

Consultant cardiac surgeon:Geir Tangen, MD,

Consultant anesthesists: Stein Tølløfsrud, MD, PhD, Bjørn Skeie, MD, PhD.

Consultant cardiologist: Jon Offstad, MD, PhD

In addition, visiting doctors and consultants are working on weekly basis.

Capacity
Oslo Heart Center has 40 beds; 7 beds in the ICU and 33 beds in the Ward, including 4 beds fully equipped for complete monitoring

Surgery:   On yearly basis, about 700 heart operations are performed, mostly coronary artery bypass grafting and aortic valve replacements.

 

 

Angiography:   About 1500 angiographies and 5-600 PCI are performed per years.

    

Patient care
The nursing is based on one primary certified nurse, which is the main contact person during the entire hospital stay. Preoperative informations are given by the nurses, the surgeon, the anesthesist, the physiotherapist, and by brochures and video. The institution has no postgraduate educational programs for nurses or physicians. Therefore, all patients are treated by fully certified medical personal.

Medical strategies and   results
Since the establishment i 1989, the medical strategies have aimed at simplifying of all routines during and after cardiac surgery. The operation and anesthesia protocols are designed to permit early extubation. The experience with more than 9000 coronary artery bypass operations (by 2003) have shown a median extubation time of 1,5 hours after the operation. Autotransfusion techniques have enabled a very low bank blood transfusion rate. About 95 % the coronary patients do not receive any blood products during hospital stay.

Most attention is paid to early physical rehabilitation, lead by the physiotherapists and the nurses. 99 % of the patients are able to get out of bed the day after the operation. About 80 % of the patients are walking stairs or outside the hospital area within 4 days after surgery.

The patients are discharged for home or ambulatory follow-up at their local hospital 6-7 days after the operation.

Hospital mortality during the past 10 years is 0.41%.

Scientific programs ( Publication list )
Oslo Heart Center has focused particularly on clinical projects, mostly on blood conservation and simplified perioperative procedures. Several clinical and laboratory studies on heparin-coated equipment for extracorporeal circulation have been undertaken. One doctoral thesis has so far been defended, and the studies are continued in close collaboration with other departments at the National Hospital.

The Ward nurses have undertaken follow-up studies, as well as local prosject on analgetic regimens, including potential effects of music.