Raleigh General Hospital will begin providing elective and emergency cardiac angioplasty services to residents of southern West Virginia on Monday.

The opening of the interventional cardiology unit is the culmination of several years worth of work by many people, according to RGH CEO Karen Bowling.

Bowling said the RGH team, Gov. Joe Manchin and the state Health Care Authority helped turn the desire for a new angioplasty catheterization lab into a reality.

Now, patients will not have to travel to Charleston for emergency or elective angioplasty procedures.

“RGH is very excited that we’re going to be able to begin our cardiac angioplasty program,” added Bowling. “I’ve had this goal for many years.

“I’ve felt it was very important that we have these cardiac services in the southern part of the state,” she said. “I believe the team I have here at RGH is outstanding and is going to provide quality service to this community.”

As part of the process leading up to providing the cardiac angioplasty services, RGH sought chest pain accreditation.

“We are now the first and only hospital with this distinction in West Virginia,” Bowling indicated.

Bowling said she sought the accreditation to show the hospital’s commitment to the community.

“We wanted to make sure people were going to know we had a real focus in providing this service in a quality manner,” she said.

Bowling announced that Dr. Kenn Glaser, an interventional cardiologist with more than 20 years of experience, was recently added to the RGH staff as director of the program.

A cardiac angioplasty catheterization laboratory and new equipment has been added at the hospital, step-down rooms have been updated and staff has been trained in anticipation of the opening of the cath lab.

“We’ve hired additional staff,” Bowling added. “Those staff have been trained to be able to work with our interventional cardiologist to provide the service.

“We have really good involvement from the emergency medical system, and our emergency department physicians,” she said. “It’s a team effort.”





Saving Lives

Cardiac angioplasty is a potentially live-saving procedure that opens narrow or blocked vessels that supply blood to the heart. It can be used during a heart attack to quickly open a blocked artery and reduce the amount of damage to a patient’s heart.

It also may be used to reduce the symptoms of coronary artery disease.

During angioplasty, the doctor will often place a small metal coil, or stent, into the clogged artery to help prop it open. The stent lowers the chance of the artery narrowing again.

In past years, RGH has sent some 200 patients annually to Charleston Area Medical Center for emergency angioplasty.

Dr. Glaser said the presence of the new cath lab in Beckley is expected to have a major impact on heart patients in the region.

A heart attack patient who gets immediate treatment is less likely to have extensive damage to the heart. Shorter transport time to the hospital means less risk for serious permanent damage.

“For people with acute heart attacks, time is muscle,” said Glaser. “The sooner we can get them open, the better.”

Glaser said the angioplasty catheterization procedure usually lasts only half an hour, but may sometimes take an hour.

“We open up the artery and re-establish blood flow,” explained Glaser. Most of the time, we’ll put stents in, and usually they’ll stay open for 20 years without any further problems.”

A native of Pleasant Prairie, Wis., Glaser attended Rutgers College in New Brunswick, Canada, and New York Medical College in New York City.

He completed his medical training at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

Glaser said he looks forward to being able to provide services to heart attack patients and those who are seeking elective angioplasty procedures.

“It’s amazing, the opportunity I’ve been given to help out,” said Glaser, who practiced in Boca Raton, Fla., before coming to Beckley. “Where I was at, there were 25 cardiologists doing what I am doing.

“Here, I am the first one doing it,” he added. “I’ve got the opportunity to help people.”

Glaser said that area hospitals will transport heart patients via ambulance and helicopter to RGH for cardiac care.

“It will make a big impact on the health care to the local people,” he said.

The physician added that he and his wife, Kaye, moved to the area over the summer and already consider West Virginia to be their “home.”

“Everyone’s nice, and it’s a wonderful place to live,” said Glaser.

— E-mail: jfarrish@register-herald.com