Northside Hospital-Cherokee, the only provider of cardiac catheterization in Cherokee County, has added a second suite to its Cardiac Catheterization/ Interventional Radiology Laboratory. The facility is Located on the hospital’s campus in Canton.
Northside Hospital-Cherokee’s Cardiac Cath Lab is staffed by specialized cardiac and radiology-trained nurses and technologists, who use state-of-the-art digital imaging technology to perform heart catheterization, interventional radiology procedures and other cardiac services including PCI (Percutaneous Coronary Interventions, or angioplasty), implantation of permanent pacemakers and AICDs (automatic internal cardiac defibrillators), stress tests, echocardiograms, nuclear medicine cardiac studies and more.
“Our Cath Lab has experienced consistent growth since we opened our first suite in 2007,” said Angela Edgar, RN, MS, CCRN-CMC, RCIS, manager of cardiology services, Northside Hospital-Cherokee. Annually, Northside Hospital-Cherokee is currently performing approximately 1,000 cardiac and interventional radiology procedures. No information was given on how many more may be done with the addition of this second suite.
This additional suite will of course enable the facility to accommodate a higher volume of patients, but just as importantly, it will also offer greater scheduling flexibility for both patients and physicians, thus bringing a higher level of service to the entire Cherokee County community.
Cardiac catheterization examines patients for blockages in the heart and coronary arteries. The test examines blood flow in the arteries, blood flow and blood pressure in the chambers of the heart, and function of the heart. Interventional Radiology is a subspecialty that allows specially-trained radiologists to see inside the body while guiding catheters and other instruments through blood vessels and other pathways of the body to perform minimally invasive procedures.
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