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Growing Heart Center
The additional lab will bring much needed capacity to our growing Heart Center. Demand for cath lab procedures has increase tremendously, both for traditional catherization and stents, as well as for other interventional procedures.
A ribbon cutting and open house was held on October 19 to mark the official opening of the hospital's third cardiac catheterization lab. The event was a chance for physicians and care team members to view the new technology and expanded space before patient cases began, which didn't take long, as the first procedure in the new lab took place later that morning.
As the region's population has increased, so too has the demand for traditional cath lab services such as catheterizations and stents. In addition, as the field of cardiology has evolved, many structural heart procedures that typically would have involved surgery can now be performed interventionally in a cath lab setting (for those patients who may not be surgical candidates). This has compounded the demand for cath lab scheduling.
The new cath lab also allows the hospital to expand cardiac services in the field of electrophysiology (EP). The hospital has purchased new state-of-the-art EP equipment. Now, we can offer patients electrophysiology procedures such as EP studies and ablations for heart arrhythmias (V-tach and Afib). With the additional lab, the hospital can expand it's cardiac program and explore other cath lab technology and procedures to bring our patients the latest in best practices.
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