Hospital opens new Heart and Vascular Center
GLENDALE, Ariz. (June 26, 2010) – Banner Thunderbird Medical Center has opened a highly advanced center for heart and vascular care that features a level of technology found at only a few hospitals in the Valley and only a select number of hospitals across the country.
The new area provides Banner Thunderbird’s cardiologists, neurologists, radiologists and vascular surgeons access to the best tools available for safely and quickly diagnosing and treating patients experiencing serious heart problems, circulatory issues and other illnesses.
Located next to the hospital’s Emergency department, Banner Thunderbird’s new Heart and Vascular Center is 38,000-square feet in size and represents a $20 million investment by nonprofit Banner Health.
It includes three new fully digital cardiac catheterization laboratories. A catheterization laboratory, or cath lab, is an examination room with diagnostic imaging equipment used to support the catheterization procedure.
In this procedure, a catheter is inserted into a large artery and various wires and devices can be inserted through the body via the catheter once it is inside the artery. Cardiac catheterization is most commonly performed to examine the coronary arteries because heart attacks most often originate from disease in these arteries. Coronary artery disease is the first-ranked cause of death for both men and women in the United States
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The new Heart and Vascular Center also includes a “biplane” lab, meaning it has two X-ray sources. Biplane labs achieve two separate planes of view with the same injection and thus saves time and limits contrast dye, limiting kidney damage in susceptible patients.
The new center also features a state-of-the-art electrophysiology lab, or EP lab. This lab includes highly advanced equipment designed to diagnose and treat abnormal heart rhythms. Cardiac electrophysiology is the study of the heart’s electrical system by inserting long, flexible wires that transmit electrical currents to and from the heart.
Banner Thunderbird’s Medical Imaging department has also expanded its capabilities within the new Heart and Vascular Center with the addition of a “Wide Bore” Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) unit. The term “wide bore” refers to the much larger opening in the MRI unit to accommodate obese and/or claustrophobic patients.
Additionally, the Center features a new 64-slice Computerized Tomography (CT) scanner capable of scanning the entire body in 10 seconds and the addition of a fourth ultrasound imaging room.
Lastly, the Center will have nearly double the number of patient prep and recovery beds.
About Banner Thunderbird Medical Center
Nonprofit Banner Thunderbird Medical Center is a 513-bed hospital offering emergency care, heart care, surgery, pediatric care, maternity services, behavioral services, and outpatient surgery.
