Mission Statement

The Scott and Laura Eller Congenital Heart Center is a Center of Excellence in the Heart & Lung Institute at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center. The mission of  The Eller Congenital Heart Center is to provide the highest quality, family-centered and technologically advanced tertiary care for children and adults with congenital heart disease in Arizona and worldwide. 

Vision Statement

The mission of the Congenital Heart Center is served by providing a continuum of care from before birth through adulthood.  We will commit ourselves to serving children with heart disease and their families through:

• An integrated multidisciplinary physician team
• Dedicated nurses and support staff
• Inpatient and outpatient facilities that enable collaboration and efficiency
• State-of the-art technology and advanced treatment options for children with heart disease
• Research initiatives that provide answers to questions about specific heart diseases in children as well as clinical research to benefit children
• Education for children and their caregivers

Our cardiac physicians are board-certified in cardiology, cardiovascular medicine, interventional cardiology, and thoracic and cardiovascular surgery. St. Joseph's has always been a leader in cardiovascular care - pioneering new procedures and advancing healthcare technology.

Dr. David Cleveland, Executive Director, Heart & Lung Institute

• First coronary care unit in the Southwest (1964)
• First Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in Arizona (1966)
• First computerized EKG program in Arizona (1967)
• First heart-lung transplant in Arizona (1984)
• One of the first three hospitals in the United States to offer a pediatric cardiac rehabilitation program (1987)
• First hospital in the Valley with fetal pulse oximeter (2001)
• First Thoracic Disease Center (2003)
• Only Adult Congenital Heart Center in Arizona 

Our physicians use a multidisciplinary approach where pediatric cardiovascular surgeons consult with St. Joseph's neonatologists, pediatric cardiac anesthesiologists, pediatric intensivists and others.

Dr. John Nigro, Director, The Eller Congenital Heart Center

Surgical repair for congenital defects include:

• Tetralogy of Fallot
• Single ventricle physiology
• Transposition of the great arteries
• Atrial and ventricular septal defects
• Congenital valve defects
• AV canal
• Total anomalous pulmonary veins
• Coarctation of the aorta
• Truncus arteriosus 

• Full-service pediatric cardiology program:  non-invasive, interventional, electrophysiology and MRI 
• Full-service pediatric cardiac surgery program
• Dedicated and specially-trained pediatric cardiac nurses in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, with physician and nurse practitioner program coverage 24/7
• Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO)
• Level III Nursery Intensive Care Unit, the highest rating available for providing services to newborns
• Pediatirc Intensive Care with 24 rooms, 10 dedicated to cardiac patients
• Four-suite cardiac catheterization lab with a dedicated pediatric room containing an X-ray machine specifically designed for children.
• Rehabilitation and education

Technologically Advanced Diagnostic Imaging With advanced technology, St. Joseph's can provide fetal echocardiography which enables visualization of a child's heart in utero; MRI of neonates; enhanced electrophysiology; and added three-dimension mapping capabilities which allow visualization of tiny vessels.