Trinity Heart Center Milestones
Winter 2023
Trinity Heart Center celebrates the 250th person to receive a successful WATCHMAN™ device. WATCHMAN reduces the risk of blood clots, stroke and reliance on blood thinners for those with an irregular heartbeat. Trinity was the first healthcare provider in the region to offer WATCHMAN beginning in 2020.
The Heart Center is also marking the 500th Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR) patient to successfully receive this life-changing procedure in the Quad Cities.
July 2022
UnityPoint Health – Trinity Rock Island and Bettendorf have received the American College of Cardiology's National Cardiovascular Data Registry (NCDR) Chest Pain ? MI Registry Performance Achievement Award. Trinity is the only hospital in the region to earn the designation.
- Trinity Bettendorf is one of only 240 hospitals nationwide to receive the Platinum Performance Achievement Award.
- Trinity Rock Island is one of only 85 hospitals nationwide to receive the Silver Performance Achievement Award.
Winter 2022
Trinity Heart Center celebrates the 100th person to receive a successful WATCHMAN™ device. WATCHMAN reduces the risk of blood clots, stroke and reliance on blood thinners for those with an irregular heartbeat. Trinity is the first - and only - healthcare provider in the region to offer WATCHMAN since 2020.
The Heart Center is also marking the 400th Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR) patient to successfully receive this life-changing procedure in the Quad Cities. Additionally, Trinity earned a 3-star TAVR rating for high-quality outcomes from The Society of Thoracic Surgeons/American College of Cardiology (STS/ACC TVT Registry). UnityPoint Health – Trinity is the only site in Illinois to earn the highest achievement.
2018
Dr. B. Reddy Endografts.
See how the CardioMEMS HF system works and learn more about congestive heart failure treatment.
Pritikin Intensive Cardiac Rehab Program launches in April to combat heart disease in the Quad Cities. Trinity is the first Pritikin Certified™ Intensive Cardiac Rehabilitation (ICR) program in the Quad Cities and among two in Illinois. Since 1975, the Pritikin ICR method has helped people recover from serious heart issues and lower their risk of complications. Pritikin ICR combines research with a personalized approach, so you maintain heart-healthy habits for life. Pritikin ICR is a proactive approach to ensure patients in eastern Iowa and western Illinois have the best care available for the prevention and treatment of heart disease. The program allows for a more comprehensive and robust treatment plan than traditional cardiac rehab, and is a critical part of patient care following a cardiac event. Referral-based patients who enter the program address necessary lifestyle changes that contribute to many chronic conditions.
2016
The first TAVR procedure was completed in February of 2016.
2015
UnityPoint Health - Trinity is the first facility in Quad-Cities to offer the CardioMEMS HF heart failure monitoring system. Cardiologist Dr. Mark Kovach performed the procedure on the Trinity Rock Island campus in March of 2015. The technology is the first and only FDA-approved heart failure monitoring device that has been proven to significantly reduce hospital admissions when used by physicians to manage heart failure. The brand new Heart center also opened in 2015.
On April 19, 2015, UnityPoint Health - Trinity opened a 90,000 square-foot, three-story expansion of its Heart Center and Emergency department (ED) at the Trinity Rock Island campus. The $61.3 million construction project - which is located at the front of the hospital - is the largest in the facility's history. The expansion is designed to improve patient safety and privacy, better coordinate care, reduce operational costs and accommodate increased demand.
2013
Recipient of the 2013 Healthgrades America's 100 Best Hospitals for Cardiac Care. Recipient of the 2013 Healthgrades America's 100 Best Hospitals for Coronary Intervention. Read the article.
2010
Trinity Heart Center best rated in the Quad-Cities by one of the leading independent health care rating organizations for Cardiac Care.
rating organizations for Cardiac Surgery and Cardiac Interventional Procedures.
2009
Society of Thoracic Surgeons awards Trinity Heart Center with a three Star rating. Trinity Heart Center is best rated in the Quad-Cities by one of the leading independent health care rating organizations for Cardiac Surgery.
2008
Trinity Heart Center is ranked best in the Quad-Cities by one of the leading independent health care
Summer 2007
Juan Bonilla, MD, performs Trinity's first minimally-invasive heart valve surgery on Josh Witt of Davenport.
Summer 2004
Trinity's surgeons team up with Loyola University's world-class heart program, one of the nation's largest. The 11 surgeons serving the Quad-Cities area belong to Cardiac Surgery Associates (CSA), a group of surgeons committed to excellence in the practice of cardiac, thoracic, and peripheral vascular surgery. The Trinity surgeons perform more than 2,000 open hearts every year, and the group's surgeons annually perform 3,500 open heart procedures and 4,000 vascular and thoracic cases. CSA is the largest of its kind in both Illinois and Iowa, and the fifth largest in the country.
April 2003
Trinity was among the first heart programs in the nation to implant revolutionary, new drug-coated coronary stents (small wire-mesh tunnels to hold open arteries) in its Cardiac Cath Lab. FDA approval for the stents was received on April 24. Considered cutting-edge technology, the stents are coated in the medication Sirolimus, an immunosuppressant drug traditionally used in transplant patients to prevent organ rejection. When blockages of the coronary arteries that supply blood flow to the heart occur, physicians may treat them with a variety of techniques. Traditionally, these blockages have been treated several ways, including balloon angioplasty and stent placement, as well as surgery to bypass the blockages, based on which method the physician decides is best for the individual patient.
During balloon angioplasty, a catheter is inserted in the groin area and a small balloon is expanded within the blocked artery to restore blood flow. The balloon helps by pressing plaque back against the vessel wall. Stents have been used to help prevent recurrences of blockages or restenosis, in balloon angioplasty procedures that were initially successful.
In about one-third of those procedures, a blockage can slowly recur within 6 months of the angioplasty due to scar tissue formation. When this occurs, another surgical procedure must take place to alleviate the blockage. The new drug-coated stents have been developed to provide sustained local delivery of agents, which help to reduce the degree of tissue growth after stent placement. This way, physicians can reduce the number of patients who must return for treatment of these blockages.
December 2001
Trinity is the first in the Quad-Cities to use the revolutionary new Symmetry Bypass System Aortic Connector, a sutureless device that connects veins to the aorta on patients who have open-heart coronary artery bypass surgery (CABG). Usually, heart surgeons sew or suture a vein from the leg to the aorta to go around or bypass the blocked vessel. This suturing can be difficult and time-consuming. With the new aortic connector, surgeons connected the vein to the aorta without any sutures. This procedure takes less time than traditional suturing, saving approximately five minutes per graft. This means less chance of trauma to the aorta and shorter operative times.
June 2001
Trinity offers state-of-the-art Tran Myocardial Revascularization (TMR) Therapy. TMR uses a specialized carbon dioxide (CO2) laser to provide pain relief for patients with debilitating angina due to severe coronary artery disease. TMR uses a high-energy, computer-synchronized CO2 laser, called the Heart Laser System, to place channels through oxygen-deprived heart muscle. The procedure has been FDA-approved and has proven to be the only laser therapy that offers long-term (at least five years) of symptom relief for patients who suffer from severe angina that is not treatable by angioplasty or by bypass surgery.
February 2001
Helbert Acosta, M.D., implanted the world's smallest dual-chamber pacemaker in a patient. The pacemaker, the Integrity Micro Autocapture Pacing System, is manufactured by St. Jude Medical. The 88-year-old patient who received the pacemaker suffered from Bradycardia, a slow heart rate of less than 60 beats per minute. The following month Friends of Trinity donated a state-of-the-art Ensite Non-Contact Cardiac mapping system to detect and treat irregular heart rhythms.
October 2000
Construction was completed on Trinity's Heart Center, with the opening of the Center's state-of-the-art Medical Intensive Care unit. This spacious and comfortable unit on the first floor of Trinity Rock Island allows patients to recover in a pleasant home-like setting.
Trinity acquires its first six Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) through an $18,000 grant from the Trinity Health Foundation. These life-saving devices were placed on each of the inpatient units at Trinity Rock Island, and all non-critical care nursing and respiratory staff at Trinity was trained in their use.
February 1999
Trinity Heart Center opens, offering comprehensive cardiovascular services, including world-class open-heart surgery and interventional cardiology procedures. The Heart Center performed 230 open-heart procedures in its first year, many that included valve repair, replacement or repair of other heart defects.