GROVE CITY Hospital begins offering heart catheterization

The hospital invested about $600,000 to make the service available locally.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
GROVE CITY, Pa. -- United Community Hospital has made good on its promise to open its own low low-risk heart catheterization lab.
The Pennsylvania Department of Health has approved the hospital to begin offering the procedure, said Anthony P. Zelenka, hospital president and chief executive officer.
Zelenka, who joined United Community in July 2003, announced plans to develop the lab in August, predicting at the time that the hospital should be able to begin doing the procedures in about four months.
First one
The first catheterization was done Wednesday.
Heart catheterization isn't new in the area. Mercer County's other two hospitals -- Sharon Regional Health System and UPMC Horizon -- already do them. Forum Health Northside Medical Center and St. Elizabeth Health Center in Youngstown and Forum Health Trumbull Memorial Hospital in Warren do them, too.
"Cardiology is an important part of what a hospital does," Zelenka said when he announced that the board of trustees had given the hospital administration permission to start the process for implementing the test for coronary blockages.
The project had a cost of about $600,000, which includes a general electric digital mobile C-arm X-ray unit with a cardiac platform.
People served by United Community Hospital had to go out of the area to have the test done before, Zelenka said.
Now, they can have a safe, fast and effective test done close to home, he said.
Catheterization is a procedure used to diagnose blockages in coronary arteries as well as to evaluate the aorta and the functioning of the heart's valves and muscles.
It involves injecting a dye into arteries serving the heart to look for blockages that could be causing angina or could cause a heart attack.
Dr. David Lasorda and his Cardiology Associates Inc. group of Pittsburgh have been contracted to do the tests at United Community. They are expected to do between two and four a week, Zelenka said.
The procedure is normally done on an outpatient basis.
United Community's catheterization lab is considered low-risk because the service is available for patients who are not in immediate need of angioplasty or bypass surgery, Zelenka said.
Patients who need further treatment can then decide where they want to go should they need stent or bypass surgery.
"Dr. Lasorda and his group are among western Pennsylvania's leading cardiologists, and we have confidence that this new service will greatly benefit our community," Zelenka said.
United Community's program could eventually develop to include stent implantation surgery, a process that uses an object that looks much like the spring from a ball-point pen to keep clogged arteries open.
The hospital has invited the public to an open house from noon to 3 p.m. Sunday. The equipment and educational exhibits will be on display, and a heart-health fair will be offered in the conference rooms.
gwin@vindy.com