St. Patrick Hospital to add hybrid operating room with $2 million donation

Lake Charles, LA (KPLC) - CHRISTUS Ochsner Health Southwestern Louisiana announced plans Thursday for a $5 million hybrid operating room at CHRISTUS Ochsner St. Patrick Hospital.

The hybrid space will merge the latest in surgical and cardiovascular advancements into one room and allow teams of interventional cardiologists and cardiovascular surgeons to work together on complex and emergency procedures, said Shelli Murphy of CHRISTUS Ochsner Health.

The project is funded in part by the CHRISTUS Ochsner Health Southwestern Louisiana Foundation, whose donors who gifted nearly $2 million.

“Today is really an announcement of a milestone in the cardiovascular service line by bringing in a state of the art hybrid room to the community,” CHRISTUS Ochsner Health Southwestern Louisiana CEO Paul Trevino said.

It will combine aspects of a traditional operating room with the hospital’s cardiology lab, allowing patients to receive treatment in one space.

“Currently, we have a catheterization lab, but if we need to provide surgical care, that patient is then moved to our operating room,” Trevino said.

“Used to be, if you had a problem or needed something done in a hybrid manner, you would need to separate rooms,” interventional cardiologist Dr. Thomas Mulhearn said. “This allows us to have the best of both worlds. We have an operating room and an cardiac catheterization lab where complex vascular surgeries can all be done in one room.”

It’s a plan several years in the making. Dr. Mulhearn said today is a day he has looked forward to for quite some time.

“It’s really going to be great for the community,” Dr. Mulhearn said. “I think it’s going to put us at the top, and extra line of what we can do from a cardiac and vascular perspective, and allow patients to get all the care they need right here at home.”

Construction is expected to be completed later this year.

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