The Epworth Foundation is a not for profit organisation and is Australia’s largest multi-campus group, located in Melbourne, Victoria; the southernmost state in Australia.
It comprises of 4 campuses, Epworth Hospital Richmond, Epworth Eastern Box Hill, Epworth Rehabilitation Brighton, and the Transitional Living centre in Brunswick. It currently has 829 beds, 23 operating theatres and 5 catheter labs, employs 2844 staff and has 1477 accredited doctors.
In 2006, Freemasons Hospital will join the Epworth Foundation making it the largest and busiest private hospital group in metropolitan Melbourne with a total of 1131 beds.
Interview
Epworth Hospital, Richmond
The Epworth Hospital is renowned both locally and internationally for its cutting edge technology and standards of clinical excellence. It was the first private hospital in Victoria to provide open heart surgery, and robotics surgery in the southern hemisphere.
Cardiovascular Intervention Suite
The Cardiovascular Intervention Suite at Epworth Hospital is one of Australia’s largest interventional facilities comprising of 4 labs. It consists of 2 cardiac labs, a dedicated vascular lab and a dedicated electrophysiology lab. The Suite attended to approximately 4300 patients and carried out about 5400 procedures in 2005. The Intervention Suite generally operates between the hours of 7am to 7pm Mondays to Fridays with a 24 hour acute service for PCI. A Saturday morning elective session is available on request
Cardiac Labs
The 2 cardiac Labs are equipped with the GE Innova 2000 digital system, the first cath lab in Victoria to do so and is supported by the Mac-Lab Haemodynamic monitoring, the Centricity Cardiology Data Management system and the Vepro Image Archival system. The labs carry out about 2900 procedures that include coronary angiograms, ASD/PFO closures, PCI and, Rotational Atherectomy. About 800 PCI’s are done annually.
Vascular Lab
This is the first dedicated vascular lab in Australia and the procedures are carried out by Vascular Surgeons. The surgeons performed about 1560 procedures in 2005. These include femoral angiograms, angioplasty and stenting, renal and carotid stenting, ovarian vein and other vessel embolisations and endoluminal repair of Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm’s (AAA). The Vascular lab did 118 AAA repair cases in 2005 and is expected to reach 130 in 2006. It is one of the busiest Abdominal Aneurysm repair labs in the world. The imaging equipment used in this lab is the GE Advantx LCV.
Electrophysiology Lab
The electrophysiology lab was established in September 2002 and is one of only two private dedicated EP labs in Australia. It is equipped with a 56 channel EP-WorkMate system and an EPT 1000XP generator for ablations. The lab carried out 879 procedures in 2005 comprising electrophysiology studies, ablations, reveal, pacemaker, AICD and bi-vent device implants. The lab hopes to acquire a 3-D Mapping system sometime in the future. The imaging equipment used in this lab is the GE Advantx LU.
Staffing
The Cath Lab Suite currently has 21 permanent staff members, comprising a unit manager, 13 registered nurses, 3 radiographers, 1 full-time and a part-time receptionist, and 2 orderlies (porters). The staff are further complemented by 11 cardiac physiologists in the cardiac and electrophysiology labs whom rotate down from the Non-Invasive Department.
The Unit Manager, Mr Letch Krishnan, is assisted by 3 team leaders and a senior radiographer. One of the team leaders has an education portfolio and is responsible for all education, training, development and competencies in the unit.
Education and Training
The nurses undergo supervised competency based training in cardiac, vascular, and electrophysiology interventions. They also undergo an anaesthetics and recovery education program with clinical placement in the Operating Theatre Suite, adjacent to the main department.
The Cath Lab Suite carried out 336 cases under general anaesthesia in 2005 and these patients are recovered in the cath lab by the cath lab nurses. Other compulsory competencies include Basic Life Support, Advanced Life Support ECG, Intravenous cannulation, cardiac pacing, and intra aortic balloon pump management.
Multi-skilling is an important aspect of staff education and training in the suite. Radiographers assist in managing the inventory, learn from the nurses to scrub assisting the doctor, and scouting during the procedures. They also monitor the patients ECG and other physiological parameters and record all the equipment used during the cases.
All doctors working in the Cath Lab Suite undergo a course on radiation safety resulting in a Radiation Safety Licence being awarded at the end of the course. This allows them to operate the x-ray equipment in the suite.
The staff in the cath lab are given opportunities to attend both local and international meetings as part of their on-going professional development with generous support of study leave, registration and other related expenses.
Recognition
The Cath Lab Suite is highly regarded both in Australia and internationally. It is a preferred reference site to many corporate businesses and is a frequent venue for live meetings, workshops, and conferences, and plays host to many renowned international speakers.
