Medical City Weatherford expands access to advanced heart and lung care

Weatherford — Medical City Weatherford has launched a new program to improve access to advanced care for patients with severe heart and lung failure. The hospital's new ECMO Activation Center (EAC) will help connect patients in Parker County and surrounding communities with specialized treatment when they need it most, closer to home.

The EAC enables trained clinical teams at Medical City Weatherford to rapidly identify patients who may benefit from extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), an advanced form of life support that temporarily takes over the function of the heart or lungs when they cannot function adequately on their own. Medical City Weatherford can quickly coordinate with for eligible patients.

The coordinated approach helps reduce delays in evaluation, treatment and transfer for patients with severe heart or lung failure.

“This new program strengthens our ability to deliver time-sensitive care for critically ill patients,” says Allen Marsh, CEO of Medical City Weatherford. “Working with Medical City Fort Worth improves care team coordination and expands access to specialized heart and lung support across our region.”

The program requires close coordination among emergency department teams, intensive care specialists, emergency medical services (EMS) partners and physicians.

Medical City Weatherford is the first ECMO Activation Center within Medical City Healthcare. The hospital is part of a comprehensive ECMO network that includes Medical City Children's Hospital, Medical City Fort Worth, Medical City Heart Hospital, Medical City Plano and Medical City Frisco, which operates a mobile extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation (ECPR) program that provides advanced heart and lung support during cardiac arrest. Together, these services help connect patients with severe heart or lung failure to specialized services across the Medical City Healthcare system of care.