Vista begins open-heart surgeries

While Vista Health Systems awaits a ruling by the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board regarding intentions to build a $99 million hospital in Lindenhurst, the health care entity will move forward with its plan to perform its first-ever open-heart surgery.

Last year, Vista announced plans to upgrade its two hospitals in Waukegan that included a $950,000 open-heart center.

And in June the state planning board approved Vista's application to begin performing open-heart-surgeries.

Condell Medical Center in Libertyville, Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital in Lake Barrington and Highland Park Hospital all perform open-heart surgeries within Lake County.

Vista had been targeting mid-December to perform the first surgery under the direction of Dr. David Cziperle. He and his team of surgeons completed 50 practice surgeries in preparation for the actual procedure.

The first procedure is expected to be performed this week at Vista East Medical Center, hospital spokesperson Adam Beeson said.

"The long hours and dedication these specially trained professionals have spent, is a testimony to our expectation of excellence," said Vista CEO Barbara Martin. "Having the ability to perform open-heart surgeries will allow the public local access to a wide variety of advanced cardiac care."

Vista will be able to provide a variety of surgical procedures such as coronary artery bypass grafts and heart valve repairs or replacements.

In addition to the heart surgery program, Vista is set to begin a $7 million renovation to its ICU.

Vista will move forward on improvements to Vista Medical Center West, which recently opened a 24-hour urgent care center.

The projects are part of the hospitals $70 million investment into the Waukegan facilities.