COEUR DALENEAs of this week, Kootenai Medical Centers new North Idaho Heart Center is open for business.


The Coeur dAlene hospital is spending nearly $10 million to build and equip its heart center, and construction work still is going on. KMC, however, has in place the most important pieces of the program: two new open-heart surgery suites, a new cardiac-catheterization lab, the hospitals first cardiothoracic surgeon, Dr. Rob Burnett, and a team of 15 critical-care nurses and technicians recruited from around the region.


When construction of about 13,000 square feet of space is finished, in February, the heart center also will include about 10 holding beds, echocardiogram and electrocardiogram testing services, and a second cath lab, says Carmen Brochu, vice president of patient-care services at KMC. That space is being constructed around and above the west end of the main hospital building.


Burnett, of Spokane-based Northwest Heart & Lung Surgical Associates, says the first patients at KMCs heart center probably will be those who come into the hospital for cardiac catheterization and end up needing immediate open-heart surgery.


As for scheduled procedures, he says initially hell perform surgery in Coeur dAlene only on lower-risk patients who require straightforward proceduresothers will continue to be treated at Spokane hospitals.


Well be very selective in the first six months as the heart center seeks to make a name for itself as a high-quality program, Burnett says. We want to establish trust in the community and trust with referring physicians, he says.


As that trust builds, Well slowly start bringing those (more high-risk) patients into the mix, he says.


By 2008, the North Idaho Heart Center anticipates performing 350 surgical procedures and 2,000 diagnostic or interventional catheterizations annually. Diagnostic catheterizations, such as angiograms, have been available at KMC since 1991.


Interventional procedures include opening up clogged arteries through angioplasty and keeping those arteries open by placing stents in them.


At such a volume, KMC likely would need a second cardiothoracic surgeon and additional support staff, Brochu says.


Having a full range of cardiac care available in North Idaho is important for the state and the region and the community, Burnett asserts.


From the patients standpoint, Timing is important frequently for coronary interventions, and having to transfer patients to Spokane delays treatment, he says.


Also, some patients are likely to be more comfortable receiving care in Coeur dAlene than they would be in Seattle or even Spokane, he says.


There really are a lot of patients that are intimidated by big cities and big hospitals, Burnett says.


From the communitys perspective, the availability of comprehensive cardiac care is an important factor for retirees when theyre choosing a place to live, and retirees are an important part of Kootenai Countys population, he says.


For KMC, the addition of cardiac surgery could help bolster the hospitals financesan important consideration given the opening soon of a specialty surgical hospital in Post Falls thats expected to reduce KMCs annual revenue.


And for Burnett, the advent of a cardiothoracic surgical program at KMC represents an amazingly unique opportunity to start a new program, he says.


He and KMC gauge that necessity by the number of open-heart procedures performed in Spokane on people who have North Idaho ZIP codesfrom 350 to 380 a year, Burnett says.


Burnett will be assisted as needed in Coeur dAlene by other surgeons from Northwest Heart & Lung Surgical Associates.Burnett worked for three years as a cardiothoracic surgeon in Eugene, Ore., before being recruited here by a medical-school friend to establish KMCs heart-surgery program, he says. He attended medical school at the University of Cincinnati, and received advanced training at the University of Washington, in Seattle.


In addition to cardiac surgery, Burnett says hed like to develop more fully a thoracic oncology (lung cancer) treatment program at KMC.