Floyd Medical Center has received approval from the Georgia Department of Community Health to begin providing interventional cardiology services.

“This approval will soon allow Floyd to truly provide the full continuum of care that our patients want and need,” says Kurt Stuenkel, Floyd president and CEO. “Interventional cardiology is an important and frequently used intervention for patients with coronary disease, and Floyd is now poised to begin to offer this service.”

Floyd anticipates providing interventional cardiology to patients beginning in September.

Physicians recommend interventional cardiology, or therapeutic cardiac catheterization, as a non-surgical option for patients with coronary heart disease. Floyd has provided diagnostic cardiac catheterization since 1992, and opened its permanent, in-house cardiac catheterization lab in 2002. Last year, Floyd relocated and expanded the cardiac catheterization lab, and performed a record 848 cardiac catheterizations in fiscal year 2008. Cardiologists at Harbin Clinic worked closely with Floyd to prepare for this new service, and will perform the interventional studies and therapies in Floyd’s cardiac catheterization lab.

Floyd’s cardiology staff has received additional training to provide these interventional cardiology services in addition to the diagnostic cardiac catheterizations Floyd already provides.

A very small percentage of patients receiving therapeutic cardiac catheterization require heart surgery. Patients who do require heart surgery will be transferred to Redmond Regional Medical Center.

Patients undergoing angioplasty procedures at Floyd will have access to the newest drug-eluting stent approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Drug-eluting stents open blocked coronary arteries and slowly release a drug to help prevent the arteries from blocking again.

ROMENEWSWIRE