MESA, Ariz. (Oct. 8, 2008) -- Banner Heart Hospital, the only heart hospital in the East Valley, is slated to expand by 2010.
The hospital is currently designing a 26,000-square-foot expansion for to its third floor. Final approval on the $29.8 million project is anticipated in December.
Banner Heart Hospital currently has four catheterization labs, one electrophysiology lab and four cardiac operating rooms.
The expansion would add two operating rooms, one catheterization lab and one electrophysiology lab. The plan also features two shells for future use as catheterization labs.
Banner Heart Hospital CEO John Harrington said the proposed expansion is necessary to meet the need of the growing East Valley population.
Catheterization labs are used to insert catheters via small incisions, and then route to the heart. Electrophysiology labs are used for procedures that deal with the heart’s electrical system, such as abnormal heart rhythms.
Groundbreaking for the expansion is planned for February 2009. The first patient is expected Feburary 2010.
When the hospital opened in 2000, it had 59 beds, three operating rooms and four catheterization labs. In 2005, it expanded to 110 beds, four operating rooms and five catheterization labs.
The expansion also folds into the hospital’s mission of becoming a destination heart facility for the Southwest and beyond. The hospital may expand its robotics programs and add more innovations in the coming year.
“The new operating rooms will provide the infrastructure to adapt to new technologies, and continue leading the nation in robotics, electrophysiology and vascular care,” Harrington said.
ABOUT Banner Heart Hospital
Banner Heart Hospital is one of the largest free-standing heart hospitals in the nation. It has been named twice as one of the nation’s 100 Top Hospitals® for cardiovascular care by Thomson healthcare business. This annual award for cardiovascular services objectively measures performance on the key criteria at the nation’s top performing, acute-care hospitals. Banner Heart is home to the Southwest's premier robotic surgery program, with more than 300 procedures already completed. Banner Heart Hospital opened in 2000 and is the only heart hospital in the East Valley, serving Mesa, Apache Junction, Queen Creek, Gilbert Payson, Globe and many other communities.