Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Fort Worth is the first hospital in the system to earn this an ELSO Award for quality, advanced care for critically ill patients.
The Extracorporeal Life Support Organization (ELSO) Path to Excellence Silver Level ELSO Award recognizes Extracorporeal Life Support (ECLS) programs that care for patients requiring extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). About the size of a small suitcase, an ECMO machine pumps blood through an artificial lung back into the patient’s bloodstream.
“Our department is committed to promoting quality care, oftentimes using ECMO and other technologies on the most critical patients to help their bodies recuperate,” said Miranda Peterson, M.S.N., R.N., CCRN, E-AEC, ECMO program coordinator at Texas Health Fort Worth.
According to Jonathan Besas, D.O., a pulmonologist on the Texas Health Fort Worth medical staff and co-medical director of the hospital’s ECMO program, the technology can support patients’ heart and lungs in numerous ways.
“When conventional therapies have been exhausted, ECMO can support the patient’s body while they are fighting severe respiratory failure or cardiac collapse, which is a severe form of damage to the cardiovascular system,” Besas said.
Peterson added that ECMO offers support so that patients can be safely treated for several health concerns:
- Cardiogenic shock
- Cardiomyopathy
- Heart attack
- Inhalation burns
- Myocarditis
- Pneumonia
- Pulmonary embolism
- Pulmonary hypertension
- Sepsis
- Severe hypothermia
- Trauma
- Witnessed cardiac arrest
“ECMO is just one of many resources used at Texas Health Fort Worth,” said Alpesh Amin, M.D., an advanced heart failure cardiologist on the Texas Health Fort Worth medical staff.
“It takes a dedicated care team to work in unison so that the critically ill patients receive high-quality care,” added Amin, the program’s co-medical director, who is also a member of Texas Health Heart and Vascular Specialists, a Texas Health Physicians Group practice*.
The award, which lasts for three years, emphasizes:
- quality patient care
- established policies and procedures
- comprehensive training and educational resources
- defined family education program
“We’re thrilled to be recognized on a national level, but we’re simply addressing the needs of North Texans,” Peterson said. “Accolades are nice, but our focus is supporting patients during critical times so they can return to their loved ones, and hopefully a better quality of life.”
*Physicians employed by Texas Health Physicians Group practice independently and are not employees or agents of Texas Health Resources hospitals.
