Community Medical Center Opens State-of-the-Art Heart Catheterization Lab

The San Angelo Community Medical Center (SACMC) celebrated the opening of an Advanced Interventional Cardiac Imaging Center on Monday. The new cath lab, which doubles the hospital’s capacity in this area of practice, cost $6.2 million, said SACMC CEO Jeremy Riney.

The lab has two Phillips Allura Xper FD10/10 X-Ray tables. Fine pixel displays that use smaller cameras allow surgeons to see more inside the body with less risk to the patient. One specific benefit to the patient is that the camera is inserted through the wrist, not the leg artery as is traditionally done with older equipment. SACMC calls the new ability “minimally invasive procedures.”

Dr. Michael Blanc, interventional cardiologist and medical director at SACMC, said “Both our patients and clinicians will benefit from the speed and outstanding image accuracy of this new X-ray system. It will allow our physicians to complete a variety of diagnostic and interventional procedures faster, and that means the patient is off the table and on their way to recovery and discharge much sooner.”

The lab will be used to treat coronary artery disease using catheter-based procedures. And, as an upgrade from the older equipment that the new lab is replacing, procedures can be performed on not only the heart, but peripheral blood vessels as well.

Other benefits of the new equipment include:

• It exposes patients and medical staff to less radiation during procedures than the older equipment
• It enables a physician to have better access to the patient because of the system’s compact design.
• The new Phillips equipment provides much finer and detailed image quality and that improves what the medical staff refers to as “diagnostic confidence.”

Riney, who took over the helm at SACMC this summer, said that the new state-of-the-art lab is unique to the market. The closest location of a lab similar to SACMC’s is Lubbock or the DFW Metroplex. Riney said that the lab allows patients from the region much better health care options, and wants physicians in the region to remain confident with referring their heart patients to SACMC.

SACMC has an excellent reputation in treating heart patients. The hospital’s “Door-to-Balloon” (D2B) time is 54 minutes, well under the 90-minute industry threshold set by The American College of Cardiologists and the American Heart Association. D2B is a time measurement in emergency cardiac care, specifically in the treatment of a life-threatening heart attack. The time starts with the patient’s arrival at an emergency room and ends when a cardiologist restores blood flow to the heart’s muscle.

At the ceremony yesterday, Catholic Priest Father Sosa from Saint Joseph Parish blessed the new lab. At the end of the blessing, he presented a bottle of Holy Water. SACMC Board of Trustees chairman Richey Oliver said that opening a new facility like this was a joy for him. “This thing came in on budget and on time,” he said. Richey congratulated the staff and the doctors for their efforts in making that happen.

While having this capability close to home is comforting, I asked Dr. Blanc how one avoids the lab. Smiling, Dr. Blanc said," Stop smoking, watch your Cholesterol, and exercise."

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Above: Dr. Blanc demonstrates the hi-resolution display showing the inside a blood vessel, pointing out what the artery plaque buildup looks like. (LIVE! Photo/Joe Hyde)