Cardiovascular care
Cardiovascular care
Every 40 seconds an American has a heart attack. Each year, more than 840,000 Americans die from cardiovascular disease, making it the nation’s leading cause of death. In addition, by 2035, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that 45 percent of Americans will have some form of cardiovascular disease.
Strong’s cardiovascular program is a beacon in the region and in the country. As the only hospital in Upstate New York to provide the full continuum of cardiovascular care, from hypertension to transplantation, it also has a long history of therapeutic and surgical therapy. In addition, Strong is one of the five largest programs in the country for ventricular assistive devices (VADs)—implanting more than 900 to date.
The heart transplant program is on pace with the country’s busiest. As of 2023, the team has performed 350 transplants, and is on track to reach 40 transplants in by the end of the year, a 60 percent increase from the prior year. These numbers surged in September 2023 when the team performed 10 heart transplants in an intense 20 days and even partnered with the kidney transplant team to provide one patient with both organs.
UR Medicine leadership recognizes the great need in the Rochester community for cardiovascular care and its close link with first-rate emergency medical services. As part of the expansion project, Strong will have four floors dedicated to cardiovascular care: one for the cardiac intensive care unit, and three for advanced heart failure/heart transplant, heart replacement therapy, cardiology, cardiac surgery, and vascular surgery patients. Each floor will have more than 25 individual rooms. This increased capacity will enable cardiovascular teams to serve a greater number of patients, but with the most innovative care coupled with the personal attention and accessibility that is often not possible at heart centers in major metropolitan areas.
Elevators will bring visitors up to patient rooms and the new cardiovascular pavilion.
Denise Abbey: Strong Hospital’s
300th heart transplant patient
In 2020, an unexpected health crisis left Buffalo nurse Denise Abbey fighting for her life. That’s when she suffered a tear in the lining of her coronary artery, which caused a heart attack and led to heart failure. Teamwork between cardiologists in Buffalo and Rochester was a lifesaver. UR Medicine’s Strong Memorial Hospital heart transplant team gave her a new heart a few months later—the 300th since the program began in 2001.
Denise Abbey: Strong Hospital’s 300th heart transplant patient
In 2020, an unexpected health crisis left Buffalo nurse Denise Abbey fighting for her life. That’s when she suffered a tear in the lining of her coronary artery, which caused a heart attack and led to heart failure. Teamwork between cardiologists in Buffalo and Rochester was a lifesaver. UR Medicine’s Strong Memorial Hospital heart transplant team gave her a new heart a few months later—the 300th since the program began in 2001.
New individual rooms
Patients who require inpatient care will benefit from individual rooms designed around the needs of 21st-century health care. More than 100 individual rooms will be constructed in a nine-story patient pavilion to improve efficiency, privacy, and safety measures. Each will have ample space in which to involve families, incorporate the latest technology, and provide the level of innovative, optimal care that reflects the caliber of our faculty and trainees.
The inpatient pavilions will be accessible through Strong Memorial Hospital near the red patient elevators off the north corridor. The entrance will include a large reception area with seating for visitors and a grab-and-go café. Large glass windows will overlook a large outdoor space that, with philanthropic support, will become a rooftop garden.
In the future, high-tech operating and special procedure rooms will also be on this floor.
Each individual room will have family space, incorporate the latest technology, and provide innovative care.