Bickle, Hadley & Schmidt Provide $2 Million for Expanded Cardiac Services

A hybrid operating room is a combination of a cardiac catheterization lab paired with a traditional operating room equipped for open-heart procedures with all the tools, staffing, and space to accommodate both.

We are pleased to announce, through the generosity of a $1 million gift from Don and Chris Bickle as well as two half million dollar gifts from both the Hadley Foundation and the Schmidt Foundation, that construction of a new hybrid operating suite at HaysMed is beginning soon. “These investments from Don and Chris Bickle, as well as the Hadley and Schmidt Foundations represent about a third of the total project cost,” said HaysMed Foundation Executive director Jeff Brull. “We’re excited about the expanded services this project represents to the entire region, and there is abundant opportunity for more people and organizations to contribute their support at every level.”

The geographic footprint of patients who seek cardiac services at HaysMed’s DeBakey Heart Institute is more than 33,000 square miles. The services provided at HaysMed are extensive, but the industry standard of care continues to evolve. HaysMed is implementing an ambitious plan to provide more minimally invasive procedure options for the people of our region that not only reduce risk and recovery time, but also increase the number of patients we are able to serve and the types of procedures that can be done locally.

A new hybrid operating suite at HaysMed will increase options for heart patients in western Kansas.

Hybrid operating facilities are fast becoming the standard of care to address conditions that were previously only treatable by doing open-heart surgery. This allows the latest, most advanced procedures that require the skills of multiple doctors from different specialties. In this suite, high-risk operations can be performed without having to move patients from one area to another. Think of it as a combination of a cardiac catheterization lab paired with a traditional operating room equipped for open-heart procedures with all the tools, staffing, and space to accommodate both. At a recent meeting giving an overview of the future of the DeBakey Heart Institute at HaysMed, President and CEO Eddie Herrman said, “Heart programs are faced with the decision to adopt these new technologies and procedures or choose to risk letting their program become obsolete.”

The implementation of new hybrid operating rooms at HaysMed allows new services and procedures in our region to be completed in a much shorter timeframe, with fewer side effects, fewer recovery and inpatient days, and fewer risks to the patient. Shorter patient recovery time and decreased length of stay due to elimination of staging between multiple procedures means patients will return home more quickly. The HaysMed Foundation has made a commitment to support approximately half of the proposed cost of this $6.5 million project. Through the generosity of Don and Chris Bickle, as well as the Hadley and Schmidt Foundations, we’re well on our way. If you’d like to learn more or to find ways you or your organization might help build these facilities for our patients, please contact the HaysMed Foundation.