County 10 was recently invited inside the new SageWest Cardiac Catheterization (Cath) Lab to see how it works and meet its Cardiac Cath Lab Team.
SageWest has worked to add a cath lab to its Lander Campus for about a year and a half. Construction began early this year and wrapped up last month marking their beginning of expanded cardiovascular care here in Fremont County.
The new addition is hard to miss on the west side of the building adjacent to the Outpatient Surgery entrance. This location gives them prime access to the operating room, as well as proximity to the emergency room.
Catheterization enables healthcare providers to examine the heart and blood vessels, and is used to look for blockages in arteries, check heart valve function, measure blood flow and even place stents in arteries when they are narrow or blocked.
The SageWest Cath Lab offers a full scope of services that include both inpatient and outpatient procedures, as well as emergency care. A few of the services include: intravascular ultrasound, diagnostic catheterization, stent placement, pacemaker implantation, and more.
Having the cath lab seconds away from an operating room and additional medical specialists, among other things, is ideal to bring peace of mind to patients.
Previously, patients in Fremont County experiencing heart problems would need to be taken to a neighboring hospital for treatment. “We can now keep those patients here, which is great for them,” shared SageWest Cath Lab Director Amy Jensen. “There will still be the off times that we will need to send them elsewhere.”
Jensen also shared they are working on affiliation agreements with Wyoming Medical Center in Casper so there are no care deficiencies between what you would receive here and what you would receive in Casper.
So far, two patients have now gone through procedures in the new cath lab since its opening a little over a month ago. Dr. Kevin Courville, M.D. is SageWest’s primary Cardiologist and they are looking at adding more now that the cath lab is open. These additions would expand the cath lab hours of operations since they are currently reliant on Dr. Courville’s availability.
SageWest is also the only Chest Pain Accredited Center in Fremont County and offers comprehensive cardiac rehab in-house.
