Cardiac Catheterization

Physicians at Carroll County General Hospital soon will have a new tool that will enable them to better detect and treat patients' heart and blood vessel disorders.Hospital officials say they hope the opening later this fall of the angiography and cardiac catheterizationlab will keep Carroll patients with cardiovascular problems from seeking treatment outside the county."We found that the No. 1 reason patients were leaving the county was to have these two procedures performed," said Linda Harder, CCGH vice president for marketing and planning.

St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson, whose cardiology business is a focus of a continuing federal health-care fraud investigation, has notified hundreds of its heart patients that they may have received expensive and potentially dangerous coronary implants they didn't need. An internal review, begun last May at the behest of federal investigators and in response to a patient complaint, has turned up 369 patients with stents that appear to have been implanted in their arteries unnecessarily, CEO Jeffrey K. Norman said in an interview yesterday.

The man was 64 years old, and he suffered a heart attack in the emergency room at Carroll County General Hospital one Saturday.The medical staff stopped the attack with injections that dissolved a blood clot blocking the flow of blood to the man's heart.A few days later, the patient was on a table in the hospital's new cardiac catheterization laboratory. Above, a video monitor produced a black-and-white tracery of blood vessels stretched over the heart that radiology technologist Carlon Carson describes as "like trees in the winter."

Kiss has its face paint. Marilyn Manson has his faux Satan look. You might not be familiar with the signature style of Baltimore rockers Stevie V. and the Heart Attackers.Surgical scrubs, booties and masks. Cardiologists by day, the jagged edge by night.OK, that's an exaggeration -- cardiologists by day and night, and every once in a while a rock band -- like this Saturday at the ninth annual Heartfest, an evening of dinner and dancing to benefit the Johns Hopkins Ciccarone Center for the Prevention of Heart Disease.

Johns Hopkins Medicine and Howard County General Hospital will open an outpatient cardiac catheterization center tomorrow on the campus of Howard County General.Called Central Maryland Heart Center Inc., the facility will be a joint venture of Hopkins and Howard County General, staffed by eight cardiologists from Howard County General and three from Hopkins.It is housed in a modular unit until a new facility can be completed next year.Cardiac catheterization is a procedure in which a thin tube is inserted into an artery to inject dye into the patient's heart, to locate blockages and other problems.

St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson, whose cardiology business is a focus of a continuing federal health-care fraud investigation, has notified hundreds of its heart patients that they may have received expensive and potentially dangerous coronary implants they didn't need. An internal review, begun last May at the behest of federal investigators and in response to a patient complaint, has turned up 369 patients with stents that appear to have been implanted in their arteries unnecessarily, CEO Jeffrey K. Norman said in an interview yesterday.

Judy Hill has been selected as Employee of the Month for April by Carroll County General Hospital.A city resident and CCGH employee for more than 14 years, she is a registered nurse in the Post-Anesthesia Care Unit and has worked in other nursing units throughout the hospital.Her primary responsibility is to care for patients coming out of anesthesia and surgery to make sure their condition has stabilized before allowing them to return to their rooms. She also orients new employees and students and has charge-nurse responsibilities.

Many Harford doctors are registered to work at both Franklin Square and the two Upper Chesapeake Health System hospitals, Fallston General and Harford Memorial. Dr. Dean L. Vassar, a staff cardiologist at Fallston General, is one such doctor.He says he determines where to send patients based on what services the patient needs and which hospital has the best equipment for that patient.Vassar finds that in his practice, he admits most patients to Fallston General."We do have patients at Franklin Square, but 99 percent of our patients are admitted to Fallston," he said.

Becki Vasse and Tricia Supik never thought that building design would play an important role in their nursing careers. But the two supervisory nurses at Carroll County General Hospital are getting a crash course in the field as the hospital begins a major renovation project."

Bernard P. Sapperstein, a vending company owner who also was founder and past president of the Save-A-Heart Foundation, died Friday of cancer at Sinai Hospital. He was 72.It was his own heart problems at age 50 that caused Mr. tTC Sapperstein to establish the Save-A-Heart Foundation in 1971.When the Pikesville resident was diagnosed as needing a cardiac catheterization, then a novel medical procedure, he was surprised that Sinai Hospital, which he considered "his" hospital, didn't have a diagnostic catheterization laboratory available.

Johns Hopkins Medicine and Howard County General Hospital will open an outpatient cardiac catheterization center tomorrow on the campus of Howard County General.Called Central Maryland Heart Center Inc., the facility will be a joint venture of Hopkins and Howard County General, staffed by eight cardiologists from Howard County General and three from Hopkins.It is housed in a modular unit until a new facility can be completed next year.Cardiac catheterization is a procedure in which a thin tube is inserted into an artery to inject dye into the patient's heart, to locate blockages and other problems.

Becki Vasse and Tricia Supik never thought that building design would play an important role in their nursing careers. But the two supervisory nurses at Carroll County General Hospital are getting a crash course in the field as the hospital begins a major renovation project."

Bernard P. Sapperstein, a vending company owner who also was founder and past president of the Save-A-Heart Foundation, died Friday of cancer at Sinai Hospital. He was 72.It was his own heart problems at age 50 that caused Mr. tTC Sapperstein to establish the Save-A-Heart Foundation in 1971.When the Pikesville resident was diagnosed as needing a cardiac catheterization, then a novel medical procedure, he was surprised that Sinai Hospital, which he considered "his" hospital, didn't have a diagnostic catheterization laboratory available.

The man was 64 years old, and he suffered a heart attack in the emergency room at Carroll County General Hospital one Saturday.The medical staff stopped the attack with injections that dissolved a blood clot blocking the flow of blood to the man's heart.A few days later, the patient was on a table in the hospital's new cardiac catheterization laboratory. Above, a video monitor produced a black-and-white tracery of blood vessels stretched over the heart that radiology technologist Carlon Carson describes as "like trees in the winter."

Judy Hill has been selected as Employee of the Month for April by Carroll County General Hospital.A city resident and CCGH employee for more than 14 years, she is a registered nurse in the Post-Anesthesia Care Unit and has worked in other nursing units throughout the hospital.Her primary responsibility is to care for patients coming out of anesthesia and surgery to make sure their condition has stabilized before allowing them to return to their rooms. She also orients new employees and students and has charge-nurse responsibilities.

Physicians at Carroll County General Hospital soon will have a new tool that will enable them to better detect and treat patients' heart and blood vessel disorders.Hospital officials say they hope the opening later this fall of the angiography and cardiac catheterizationlab will keep Carroll patients with cardiovascular problems from seeking treatment outside the county."We found that the No. 1 reason patients were leaving the county was to have these two procedures performed," said Linda Harder, CCGH vice president for marketing and planning.

Kiss has its face paint. Marilyn Manson has his faux Satan look. You might not be familiar with the signature style of Baltimore rockers Stevie V. and the Heart Attackers.Surgical scrubs, booties and masks. Cardiologists by day, the jagged edge by night.OK, that's an exaggeration -- cardiologists by day and night, and every once in a while a rock band -- like this Saturday at the ninth annual Heartfest, an evening of dinner and dancing to benefit the Johns Hopkins Ciccarone Center for the Prevention of Heart Disease.

When patients are in the throes of a heart attack, there's no question that stents save lives. But for heart patients with few symptoms and less than severe artery blockage, whether to use a stent is a question with no clear-cut answer, say cardiologists. In fact, these days some heart experts say the mesh metal tubes used to keep narrowed or weakened arteries propped open are overused for blockages that can be treated just as well with medicine, a healthy diet and exercise. A recent internal review of heart patients at St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson found 369 patients received the coronary implants unnecessarily.

Many Harford doctors are registered to work at both Franklin Square and the two Upper Chesapeake Health System hospitals, Fallston General and Harford Memorial. Dr. Dean L. Vassar, a staff cardiologist at Fallston General, is one such doctor.He says he determines where to send patients based on what services the patient needs and which hospital has the best equipment for that patient.Vassar finds that in his practice, he admits most patients to Fallston General."We do have patients at Franklin Square, but 99 percent of our patients are admitted to Fallston," he said.