ECMO Program at TidalHealth

SALISBURY, Md. – In this week’s edition of Health Beat, brought to you by TidalHealth, WMDT spoke with Dr. Audrey Khoury about TidalHealth’s recent launch of their Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) program.

Dr. Khoury says ECMO is a machine that allows a patient’s heart and lungs to rest and recover for various reasons, typically due to illnesses like acute heart failure and acute respiratory failure.

“For example, if a patient comes in with a really serious heart attack, we can stabilize them on a while the interventional cardiologist are placing a stent,” she elaborated.

TidalHealth launched the program because they wanted to improve patient outcomes for those facing acute respiratory and heart failure on the Eastern Shore. As a result, TidalHealth is partnering with a company called Integration Health to help develop protocols and training for staff.

“I think patients and their families would really prefer to stay local if anyone ever had to be placed on ECMO,” Dr. Khoury added. “And so I think it’s really nice to have our own ECMO program, so everybody can stay local and not have to travel to other quaternary care centers across the Bridge or in Philadelphia nearby.”

While the program is not up and fully running quite yet, TidalHealth is excited to be able to take better care of patients with acute heart failure and respiratory failure on Delmarva. To learn more about ECMO at TidalHealth, click here.