AdventHealth celebrates opening of Heart and Vascular Institute in Littleton

AdventHealth is continuing its commitment in the south Denver community with the opening of the AdventHealth Heart and Vascular Institute. The groundbreaking heart center is located on the AdventHealth Littleton campus and will provide a full spectrum of services in one place, including minimally invasive electrophysiology procedures, open heart surgery, cardiac catheterization, intensive care, and more.

“The AdventHealth Heart and Vascular Institute is more than a building. It’s a vision realized — a place where world-class expertise meets small-town compassion,” said Rick Dodds, CEO of AdventHealth Littleton.

The AdventHealth Heart and Vascular Institute is a direct response to sobering heart health statistics. More than 8,000 Coloradans die each year due to heart disease, ranking it as a leading cause of death. Research shows cardiac hospitalizations are projected to increase in our community by 22% by 2034. One in three of our neighbors will experience atrial fibrillation, and one in five will develop severe aortic stenosis, a heart condition that restricts blood flow.

“We all have someone close to us who has been impacted by heart disease. I hear and see these stories every single day,” said Dodds. “The AdventHealth Heart and Vascular Institute is our way of making a real difference in the outcome of those stories. Our goal is to treat and hopefully prevent heart disease at the very start.”

Before the opening of the AdventHealth Heart and Vascular Institute, people in the south Denver community who needed a hospital procedure to treat a heart condition would have to travel 30 minutes or more to get care. That can be an unsurmountable distance, particularly when seconds can mean the difference between life and death.

“By creating one of the best cardiac centers in the nation, my friends and neighbors won’t have to leave this community to get the care they need,” said Dodds. “We are planting our flag as the heart center of the Rocky Mountains.”

The Heart and Vascular Tower will be home to world-class specialists, thanks to AdventHealth’s strong partnership with South Denver Cardiology, Colorado’s largest and most preeminent cardiology practice.

“The AdventHealth Heart and Vascular Institute will be a premier center for all cardiovascular services—not only in the Littleton community, but also throughout the entire Rocky Mountain Region. This center will impact countless lives and families,” said Lee MacDonald, MD, president of South Denver Cardiology.

With 143,489 square feet across five floors, the institute features:

• Three cardiovascular operating rooms, with room for expansion
• Three cardiac catheterization/electrophysiology labs, with room for expansion
• 24 Cardiovascular ICU stepdown beds
• Advanced imaging and ablation technology
• A team of 50+ cardiology providers and 35 cardiac team members

Other highlights of the Heart and Vascular Institute include a leading-edge hybrid operating room that enables surgeons to collaborate in real time and complete procedures of varying degrees of complexity in a single session. The Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit will feature a stepdown model that allows patients to stay in the same room until they go home, meaning they get seamless, continuous care in one place. Patients with life-threatening heart problems will have access to extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), a process that substitutes the functions of the heart and provides long-term support for breathing and heart function after standard treatments have failed. Our ECMO program is one of only two in the state that has received the prestigious Gold Level Center of Excellence Award, because our patient survival rates exceed the national and international averages.

The high-quality care provided by the doctors and nurses of the Heart and Vascular Institute will extend AdventHealth’s mission to treat not only the physical heart, but the emotional and spiritual well-being of every patient, helping them to feel whole.