April 16, 2010

Against the background of the economic crisis, the new state-of-the-art Heart and Vascular Complex brings a positive note to the country and amounts to a crucial advancement towards combating cardiovascular disease—the number one killer of both men and women in Europe.

“Attracting investments and facilitating new projects is the most important anti-crisis measure,” said PM Boiko Borisov at the turning of the first sod on Friday, April 16 in the city of Pleven.

The sixth in a network of specialized hospitals operated by the Bulgarian Cardiac Care Institute, the hi-tech centre of excellence will be the first vertically integrated solution for patients with heart and vascular disease, which will eliminate the need for constant travel and spare patients from lengthy waiting lists.

The complex will create over 400 jobs for medical staff and will have 200 dedicated patient beds, 5 operating theaters for cardiac and vascular surgery, an imaging complex and a rehabilitation department among its many facilities.

“We have already changed the face of cardiac care in Bulgaria,” said Dr. Slaveyko Djambazov, CEO of The Bulgarian Cardiac Institute. “With this center we will continue to improve the life of patients and ensure our patients receive the best care available by the latest scientific standards the current research provides,” said Djambazov.

Through a network of five cardiac care hospitals and twelve outpatient centers, the Institute has had as its goals to decrease cardiovascular mortality in Bulgaria. The results are already significant – a 30% drop in in-hospital mortality from acute coronary syndrome in the entire region of Pleven.

Professor Mladen Grigorov, Medical Director of the Bulgarian Cardiac Institute is confident that the validated quality and the continuity of care provided by the growing network of hospitals will further reduce mortality and complications rates in the future.

Alongside decreasing mortality, the Institute has tackled another significant problem—the unequal access to critical treatment in different regions of the country. Now, thanks to the Institute’s hospitals spread out in Pleven, Veliko, Tarnovo, Varna and Yambol and their fleet of ambulances, transportation times have been shortened by as much as 30 minutes.

What is more, now 80% of the population has access to critical care within an hour and a half after an emergency call, compared with 30% just three years ago, in 2007.

Continuity of care for patients has also been significantly improved. Throughout the Institute’s hospitals patient records and follow-up visits are organized by an advanced software system, which minimizes mistakes and streamlines care to focus the attention on the patient’s health in the long term as well as the short-term.

By October 2011, patients of the Heart and Cardiovascular Complex will have access to a facility which rivals the best in Europe with capabilities such as advanced imaging, invasive and surgical revascularization, an arrhythmia center, enderactomy, percutaneous valve replacement, heart and kidney transplantations, and robotic surgery.

Other attendees at the symbolic first sod for the new Heart and Vascular Complex included Tsetska Tsacheva, Chairwoman of the National Assembly of the Republic of Bulgaria, the Mayor of Pleven Municipality, Members of Parliament from Pleven, and other public figures from local and state authorities as well as renowned international cardiologists and cardiac surgeons, among them former president of the European Society of Cardiology, Jean-Pierre Bassand.