Photograph by Jonathan Pollock
This January, the heart of SSM Cardinal Glennon Children’s Medical Center grew a little bigger with the addition of the Dorothy and Larry Dallas Heart Center. Located on the ground floor of the $59 million West Tower, the new facility is specifically geared toward providing young patients with the latest advancements in cardiology care. “The previous facility was much smaller, and we shared our area with several other subspecialty clinics,” says Dr. Kenneth O. Schowengerdt Jr., the center’s medical director.
Like the rest of the hospital, the center is designed to be child- and family-friendly. Vibrant artwork and bright colors in exam rooms and hallways replace sterile, white walls; patients can watch their favorite DVDs on flat-panel TVs. More exam rooms and echocardiography suites contribute to smoother, more efficient diagnoses. Improved technology provides fetal echocardiography testing and 3-D views of the heart, allowing doctors to see with more detail and clarity. Expectant mothers can view sharper ultrasound images in the prenatal ultrasound suite, where cardiologists work closely with the new St. Louis Fetal Care Institute (see p. 136).
The facility—which also houses the 60-bed Dana Brown Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, 10 surgery suites, and a four-bed endoscopy suite—will eventually accommodate more than 23,000 visits and procedures annually, projects Schowengerdt. He anticipates the volume of patients will continue to increase as people travel to the center from across the region. Already, as of press time, it had attracted a group of eight cardiologists to care for the growing crowd. “This represents a significant increase in cardiology faculty at Cardinal Glennon,” he says.
Hospitalized patients aren’t the only ones benefiting from the new facility; the expansion also accommodates checkups and outpatient procedures. “The family comes directly to the center, rather than going through a central registration process,” says Schowengerdt. “It makes a potentially stressful experience easier for the families.”
