Wilkes Regional Medical Center staff members, doctors, and others in the community on Thursday celebrated the hospital’s new heart center and its expanded emergency department.
The ribbon cutting was also held in conjunction with the celebration of the hospital’s 60-year anniversary.
The hospital’s recent construction will allow the staff to accommodate more patients in the emergency department, and the new heart center is located close to the emergency department to make operations more efficient for the patients, officials said.
Wilkes Regional CEO Gene Faile congratulated the employees and doctors for constantly “giving of their lives” to take care of the community’s “health care needs.”
Recent construction will allow the emergency department to increase from having 18 to 28 beds. The addition increased the emergency department by another 9,500 square feet.
The construction project will also allow cardiologists Dr. William Scarpa and Dr. Julian Thomas to work at the hospital near the emergency department.
Before the ribbon cutting on Thursday, Scarpa and Thomas were present during a tour of the new 2,200-square-foot heart center. Scarpa provided part of the tour, telling attendees about how the hospital now has all electronic records, how the hospital’s location will make operations more efficient, and other details of the new heart center.
In a hallway right outside the heart center, a historic display showed attendees pictures of the hospital during its 60-year history. Also, a time capsule was available for anyone to drop a note about his or her memories of the hospital. The time capsule will be opened in 2022.
The emergency department now has a robot in association with Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center that allows the hospital to have quicker and more efficient care with patients with stroke symptoms.
Wilkes Regional’s emergency department currently sees an average of 94 patients a day, and the turnaround time for patient care is 160 minutes.
The Heart Center of Wilkes Regional with Wake Forest Baptist Health will include the following services:
-Echocardiology
-Stress testing
-Nuclear stress testing
-EKG and Arrhythmia Evaluation
-Syncope
-Heart murmurs and heart valve disorders
-Holter and event monitors
-Coronary artery disease, both acute and chronic
-Heart failure
-Pacemaker management
-Cardiac medication management
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