Comparison of care at new Lafayette hospitals

LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) - Lafayette has two new hospitals, and NewsChannel 18 investigated to see if they are fulfilling their promises to the community in "Hospital Examinations."

The Clarian Arnett Hospital opened in October 2008. St. Elizabeth East opened in February 2009. We compared two of the most used services - cardiac and baby services - at the hospitals to see if there is any difference in care.

Baby Services:

Both hospitals offer moms a place to bring babies into the world. At Clarian Arnett, mothers deliver in one area and then are moved to a private room, segmenting the care. St. Elizabeth East offers the only place labor, delivery, and recovery or LDR are done in one private room. At St. Elizabeth East, moms can also watch the baby's birth on a closed circuit TV.

Both hospitals have private rooms in the Neonatal Intensive Care Units or NICUs for newborns with medical problems. Clarian Arnett is affiliated with Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis. The Surber family took the affiliation into account when they knew their son would be born prematurely. Austin arrived 13 weeks early and weighed about two pounds at birth.

"We knew he was getting the same care here that he would have gotten at Riley,” said mother Kristin Surber.

Clarian Arnett also has a NICU doctor or nurse-practitioner in the hospital 24-7.

"We're not waiting 15, 20, 30 minutes for a doctor or nurse-practitioner to come because that is 15, 20, 30 minutes too late,” said Clarian Arnett Neonatologist Dr. Abhey Singhal.

The affiliation also allows doctors to consult with specialists at Riley. The two physicians in different places can look at the same information through Clarian's digital medical records.

St. Elizabeth East's NICU offers a continuation of one of the region's oldest NICUs. It is 35-years-old. Neonatologist Dr. Rosario Chua has worked there 21 years and said an experienced staff is critical to caring for babies with special needs.

"Some of the nurses have worked here for 33 years and to be able to work together as a team of mature health care professionals has been shown to improve outcomes in these babies,” explained Chua.

New mother Ciarria Barber said the established staff at St. Elizabeth East gave her son Keylene top notch care.

"I'm still shocked he is in here. It's just a lot to handle,” she said.

Cardiac Care:

Clarian Arnett has an on-call heart team available 24-7. The national recommendation to identify a heart attack and treat it with a stent or balloon to relieve the blockage is 90 minutes. Clarian Arnett's average time is 30 minutes. That's an hour quicker than the national bench mark. Cardiac surgeons have also done 240 open heart surgeries last year and are on pace to do more in 2010.

"We feel that we offer care that is very similar to what people would get by traveling to Indy but they can stay in their community and stay close to their families,” said Cardiac Surgeon Dr. Thomas Aufiero.

For heart patient Dan Renfrow, traveling to Indy for a quintuple bypass would have been his only other option because of insurance reasons. Doctors discovered five arteries were about 90 percent blocked though he had no symptoms. He said he's more active now than he was before the surgery.

"Now I can do more than take three to four steps at a time,' he said.

St. Elizabeth East offers the region's only accredited chest pain center. The hospital uses best practices to catch and correct heart attacks. Its average time to identify and treat a heart attack is 69 minutes, a time 21 minutes below the national benchmark of 90 minutes.

"I think any time you can be consistent in the care of your patients you improve the quality of care and give them the best chance of survival what can be a life threatening event,” said Cardiologist Dr. George Brodell.

St. Elizabeth East also offers acuity adaptable units in the cardiac care center. The patient remains in the same room and the care team including doctors, nurses and equipment comes to them. The hospital said remaining in one room reduces medical errors and leads to shorter hospital stays.

One last way to compare: Medical Error Reports from the Indiana Health Department. In 2009, Clarian Arnett Health had two errors for retention of a foreign object in a patient after surgery. Home Hospital, which St. Elizabeth East replaces, had one error, also for retention of a foreign object in a patient after surgery.

Reports for St. Elizabeth East are not yet available. You can view reports about medical errors on the Indiana State Department of Health website.