Heart Hospital of Austin Celebrates 25 Years

Heart Hospital of Austin recently celebrated 25 years of providing high-quality care to patients in Central Texas. Established in 1998 and acquired by St. David’s HealthCare in 2010, Heart Hospital of Austin has since become one of the highest-performing cardiovascular facilities in the nation, specializing in the diagnosis and treatment of heart disease.

The hospital was established by a team of 20 cardiologists and opened with 58 inpatient beds, 14 outpatient beds, a 24-hour emergency room and three operating rooms. Since then, Heart Hospital of Austin has grown to include six operating rooms (including three hybrid operating rooms), three catheterization labs and electrophysiology services. Additionally, St. David’s HealthCare recently completed a $20.9-million expansion that added 14 progressive care unit beds, increasing the total number of beds to 72.

Heart Hospital of Austin has received numerous accolades for patient outcomes, including being named among the nation’s 50 Top Cardiovascular Hospitals by Merative (formerly IBM Watson Health) for 12 years, as well as America’s 100 Best Hospitals for Cardiac Care and 50 Best Hospitals for Cardiac Surgery from Healthgrades, as part of St. David’s Medical Center.

Some of Heart Hospital of Austin’s milestone achievements include:

• September 28, 2010 – Heart Hospital of Austin became the first facility in Austin to offer minimally invasive surgeries to treat heart valve defects.
• May 9, 2011 – Heart Hospital of Austin became the first facility in Austin to use Live 3D Transesophageal Echo imaging for real-time displays of the heart. The technology allows surgeons to more accurately perform corrective cardiac procedures.
• January 24, 2012 – Heart Hospital of Austin opened the Heart Valve Clinic and began treating patients with severe aortic stenosis using a multidisciplinary approach.
• February 15, 2012 – Heart Hospital of Austin became the first hospital in Central Texas to offer transcatheter aortic valve replacement, an alternative to open-chest surgery in patients with aortic stenosis, a condition that causes a narrowing of the aortic valve and obstruction of blood flow to the heart.
• April 10, 2012 – Heart Hospital of Austin became the first facility in the country to successfully treat patients using a new, FDA-approved ablation catheter (Safire^™ BLU^™ Duo).
• September 24, 2014 – Heart Hospital of Austin announced the first MitraClip procedure in Central Texas. MitraClip is a minimally invasive treatment option for patients suffering from mitral valve regurgitation.
• September 26, 2014 – Heart Hospital of Austin became the first facility in Texas to implant CardioMEMS, a miniaturized, wireless monitoring sensor to manage heart failure and reduce hospital admissions.
• February 23, 2015 – Heart Hospital of Austin, in collaboration with Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgeons, became the first facility in Austin to perform fenestrated endovascular aortic repair, a minimally invasive procedure to treat patients with abdominal aortic aneurysms.
• October 12, 2015 – Heart Hospital of Austin became the first facility in the country to enroll patients in the FDA-approved AMAZE clinical trial, a potential new treatment alternative for patients with atrial fibrillation.
• May 16, 2016 – Heart Hospital of Austin became the first hospital in Texas to offer MultiPoint Pacing technology to treat patients with congestive heart failure.
• May 1, 2017 – Heart Hospital of Austin became the first facility in Texas and among the first in the country to use an innovative therapy for the treatment of calcified plaque in patients with peripheral artery disease, a common condition in which narrowed arteries reduce blood flow to the arms or legs.
• September 23, 2020 – Heart Hospital of Austin launched its Advanced Heart Failure program, a mechanical circulatory support program that provides device therapies to treat patients suffering from advanced heart failure. The program features two key therapies—extracorporeal membrane oxygenation and left ventricular assist device.
• March 18, 2021 – Heart Hospital of Austin became the first facility in Central Texas to use a new treatment for patients living with severely calcified coronary artery disease.
• June 22, 2023 – Heart Hospital of Austin became the first facility in the country to participate in an early feasibility study for a remote heart monitoring system called FIRE1. The device sends daily heart readings to cardiologists who analyze the results and make medical recommendations.