Expanded access to nonsurgical, minimally invasive heart and vascular services is now available with a new endovascular lab now online at Tanner Medical Center/Villa Rica.

The lab allows vascular surgeons to check for problems and provide interventions to help keep patients’ blood flowing properly through their veins. It totals just under 1,200 square feet including a control room and supply storage.

“The new lab expands Tanner’s minimally invasive heart and vascular services to Villa Rica,” said Taylor Powers, administrator of Tanner’s Villa Rica center. “This enables our cardiologists and vascular surgeons to perform diagnostic catheterizations and diagnostic endovascular procedures, used to find narrowed and blocked arteries, as well as interventional endovascular procedures that allow vascular surgeons to clear a blocked artery.”

In addition, the lab permits Tanner’s team of cardiologists to perform advanced diagnostic procedures, such as angiography, that can help identify blocked arteries around the heart. When blockages are found, patients can receive cardiac interventions, such as angioplasty and stenting, at Tanner’s Heart and Vascular Center in Carrollton.

“The cost of the lab was $1.9 million for equipment, not including the remodeling that was necessary within the facility to accommodate the new lab,” Powers said.

During an endovascular procedure, like the ones performed in the new lab, a physician threads a thin tube, called a catheter, into a patient’s arteries. The catheter can be navigated through the patient’s blood vessels to help find narrow points and blockages that can prevent blood flow.

Powers said the new lab will make the center more convenient for patients.

“This new lab expands Tanner Health System’s heart and vascular capacity while also making it more convenient for residents in Carroll, Douglas and Paulding counties while giving the cardiologists and vascular surgeons who practice in Villa Rica a new resource to care for their patients,” said Powers.

Tanner Health System has expanded its heart and vascular program in Villa Rica, adding providers to the patient care team at Tanner Heart and Vascular Specialists and Tanner Vascular Surgery and opening a new Tanner Vascular Surgery location in Villa Rica.

Tanner Medical Center/Villa Rica provides other heart and vascular diagnostic services as well, including nuclear medicine, cardiac stress tests, 128-slice CT scans, ultrasound and full-time MRI services on its MRI systems.

In addition, the hospital offers 24-hour emergency care from certified emergency medicine physicians, as well as maternity services, critical care services, orthopedics, surgical services, diagnostic imaging and laboratory services.

To learn more about the services available at each of Tanner Health System’s facilities, click “Tanner Locations” online at www.tanner.org or, to find a physician offering endovascular and cardiac services in Villa Rica, call 770.214.CARE.