Cardiovascular critical care in Tulsa
The Oklahoma Heart Institute (OHI) is the only ELSO Center of Excellence in Oklahoma. Our dedicated team of critical care physicians (intensivists) offer 24/7 coverage to ensure your heart condition improves with each day you spend with us. We are also the first hospital in the region to offer ECMO to patients experiencing the most severe forms of heart and lung failure. Our top-performing board-certified doctors and fellowship-trained cardiac intensivists are experts in the field of critical cardiac care, from groundbreaking research to first-time procedures. No matter your needs, we offer a seamless continuum of care to ensure you receive the exceptional outcomes you deserve.
Our critical heart care services
Our cardiovascular intensive care unit (ICU) works alongside cardiologists, surgeons, and other specialists to ensure you receive the consistent, unified care you need to help your heart heal. We offer many lifesaving services and treatments at our cardiovascular ICU, including:
- Cardiogenic shock treatment
- Cardiothoracic surgery
- Heart attack treatment
- Heart failure care
- Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO)
- Pulmonary embolism care from a Pulmonary Embolism Response Team (PERT)
- Structural heart procedures, such as TAVR
- Vascular surgery
When you visit OHI, you will have access to state-of-the-art technology and innovative emergency heart care for all types of heart and vascular conditions. We are one of 15 PERT Centers of Excellence in the nation. Please call us to learn more about our services.
ECMO treatment
Oklahoma Heart Institute was the first hospital in northeast Oklahoma to offer extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) to adult patients who are extremely sick due to heart and/or lung failure. “Extracorporeal” means outside of one’s body, “membrane” is a type of artificial lung and “oxygenation” is the process of getting oxygen into the blood.
Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is a type of treatment administered to adult patients who are extremely sick due to heart and/or lung failure. The ECMO machine does not treat heart or lung failure, but instead pumps blood and oxygen through the body while the heart and lungs are allowed to rest. As blood is pumped from your body into the ECMO machine, the ECMO machine oxygenates the blood and removes carbon dioxide. The newly oxygenated blood is then pumped back into your body. In this way, ECMO temporarily acts as an artificial heart and lung, allowing your real organs a chance to rest.
Placing a patient on ECMO can be done in the operating room, a cath lab, at the patient’s bedside, or via a mobile unit that can be moved to a patient within four hours distance. Depending on your condition, you might be placed on ECMO anywhere from a few days to several weeks. During this time, your medical team will still be able to treat you with a variety of procedures and medications, and give you adequate time to recover.
As the first adult ECMO program in northeast Oklahoma, our fellowship-trained cardiac intensivists offer expert ECMO treatment for patients with various conditions and illnesses, including:
- Acute heart failure
- Blood clot in the lungs
- Burn injury to the lungs
- COVID-19
- Chest trauma
- Drug intoxication
- High-risk cardiac catheterization lab procedures
- Influenza
- Low body temperature
- Overwhelming infection
- Patients recovering from heart failure, lung failure or heart surgery
- Pneumonia/ARDS
- Ventricular assist device (VAD) procedure or similar
For ECMO referrals, please call 1-833-OHI-ECMO (644-3266). You may view our ECMO patient referral guidelines by clicking here.
Mobile ECMO
Our mobile ECMO program offers ECMO’s lifesaving capacity to patients located within 4 hours of our hospital. We are able to place patients on ECMO much quicker, and then transport them back to OHI to continue this lifesaving therapy. Our mobile ECMO program includes a multidisciplinary team of intensivists, surgeons, nurses, and perfusionists.