New catherization lab has ribbon cutting at Princeton Community Hospital

Greg Jordan, Bluefield Daily Telegraph, W.Va.
4 min read
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Oct. 1—PRINCETON — A new unit at Princeton Community Hospital will give local cardiac patients who previously had to travel to hospitals outside the Mercer County area access to quality care that's closer to home.

Karen Bowling, president and CEO of Princeton Community Hospital, welcomed supporters, local dignitaries and the public Friday to the hospital's new cardiac catheterization laboratory's ribbon cutting ceremony. The hospital is an affiliate of WVU Medicine.

"We're very excited to be here today. I want to welcome you to what I believe is one of the most significant moments in our hospital's 52-year history," Bowling said. "This is the grand opening of our brand new, state-of-the-art cath labs that will really revolutionize heart care in southern West Virginia, so it's really a great day to be here at Princeton Community Hospital."

"This is the first major construction project since Princeton Community Hospital formed a medical affiliation with WVU Medicine in January of 2021," she said. "And it reflects a significant financial investment in the latest technology in cardiac care that will make it possible for many, many more of our citizens to receive the crucial health care they need right here at home. PCH began performing cardiac stint procedures in our mobile cath lab in the end of 2020. Since then, Dr. Stephen Ward and his team have carried out 550 cardiac catheterizations and nearly 200 PCI procedures. On Nov. 1, our cardiac program service line will be expanded to include an interventional STEMI program to assist patients experiencing emergent heart attacks."

Bowling told the guests that they would be seeing the new in-house unit's two cath labs and an eight-bed prep and recovery area.

"Changes have been implemented in our cardiac rehab, stress lab and echocardiography areas to provide more efficient and high-quality care," Bowling said. "That includes one-day stress protocol, increased coverage of echocardiograms and the expansion of our cardiac rehab program."

Albert Wright, president and CEO of the WVU Health System, said that having the new cardiac catheterization lab will mean a lot to southern West Virginia.

"Our goal is to improve the health trajectory of the state of West Virginia. We have to have regional hubs around the state that will take care of acutely ill patients," Wright said. "And so, we made a major investment here at Princeton Community Hospital to serve this southern part of the state and Mercer County and the surrounding areas, and you'll see equipment here that's the same equipment we put in every WVU Medicine advanced heart care speciality center; and new folks are going to have it here close to home and it is spectacular. It's very impressive."

The new unit gives the region two cath labs able to do pacemakers and services such as advanced interventional cardiac procedures and STEMI.

"It's good for this community, it's good for WVU Medicine," Wright said. "I'm proud of the team here and Dr. Ward and Rusty Sarver of the board of directors."

Having the new unit means that many cardiac patients will not have to be transported to other hospitals for treatment.

"Absolutely. It's going to allow us to have better care, better imaging, less radiation exposure to the patients; also, there's a big part of having two labs that's important. When we had only one lab at Bluefield, if the lab had to undergo any routine maintenance, it would interrupt our coverage, frequently for a day at a time," said Dr. Stephen Ward, M.D., director of interventional cardiology and the chair of cardiology at PCH. "Now we'll be able to do those sequentially and hopefully we can keep this up and running as much as possible."

Rusty Sarver, president to the Princeton Community Hospital Board of Directors, said the idea of getting a cath lab unit was being discussed years ago when he joined the board of directors.

"I think I've been on the board 13 years and the very first year I was on board we actually talked about a cath lab and the need for it and the population that we serve. It's very difficult for them to travel any distance, much less an hour or an hour and a half," Sarver stated. "I'll have to say this is a dream that took a little while, but it came through and good things are worth waiting on. But I really think it's going to be a tremendous addition to the hospital and the expert care here at PCH, and I'm looking forward to the other things coming down the line."

Bowling thanked the hospital's board of directors for their support, cardiac cath lab director David Rumley and his team for their work, Swope Construction and hospital's plant operations team for their work in making the new unit a reality.

— Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com

Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com

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