New outpatient cardiac cath lab replicates the efficiencies of free-standing centers, but with added patient benefits.

January 9, 2009 -- Missouri Baptist Medical Center has invested more than $2.5 million to further expand its cardiology services by opening two new cardiac catheterization labs. The first opened in late October and is an interventional cardiac cath lab that specializes in angioplasty and other life-saving interventional procedures to unblock coronary arteries. 

The second opened January 19 is an outpatient cardiac cath lab dedicated to diagnostic catheterizations. Its goal is to replicate the efficiencies of a free-standing center, with the added benefits of patient safety and the back-up cardiac angioplasty or surgery expertise offered by Missouri Baptist.

The two labs are adjacent to each other, and connected to the hospital's cardiac surgery suite. The labs were designed to ensure that patients could easily be moved from the diagnostic lab to the inpatient lab or the cardiac operating room, where increased levels of care could be provided should the patient require angioplasty, a stent or emergency surgery to open a coronary blockage. 
 
"You can't find a more state-of-the-art, well-equipped interventional cath lab anywhere in St. Louis," says Robert Kopitsky, MD, medical director, Missouri Baptist's inpatient cardiac catheterization lab and member of the Hospital's medical executive committee. "The contiguous design and proximity of the operating rooms is a real advantage for physicians and patient safety."

Dr. Kopitsky and other physicians who treat patients there were involved in its design. Available for use by all cardiologists with on-staff hospital privileges, the new diagnostic cardiac catheterization lab is expected to accommodate care for an additional 1,000 patients per year.

"Our goal is to provide a high degree of efficiency in this new diagnostic lab," says John Hess, MD, named medical director of the new outpatient diagnostic facility. "This means we will have on-time starts, which translate into less wait time for our patients."

Missouri Baptist opened a dedicated cardiovascular surgery floor in 2007 and added a Stereotaxis system to its electrophysiology labs in 2008, has invested more than $17 million in technology and construction over the past three years to enhance its Heart Center. Each year more than 5,000 cardiac procedures and nearly 700 open heart surgeries are performed at Missouri Baptist -- more than any other single hospital in St. Louis County. 

Diagnostic cardiac catheterization is a procedure to examine blood flow to the heart, diagnose blockages and test how well the heart is pumping. The doctor inserts a thin catheter into an artery or vein in the arm or leg. From there it is advanced into the chambers of the heart or into the coronary arteries where it releases a dye that is monitored by imaging equipment. 

Interventional cardiac catheterization employs a balloon or stent on the catheter tip to reopen blocked arteries restoring blood flow to the heart. This procedure is called percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) and commonly referred to as angioplasty.