An open house for the new Advanced Electrophysiology Suite at Banner – University Medical Center Tucson will be hosted by the Cardiac Catheterization Lab on the hospital’s first floor Thursday, Sept. 13, 4-6:30 p.m., in Cath Lab No. 5. Light refreshments will be served
The new $4.2 million cath lab suite is equipped with a second c-arm X-ray unit featuring an Azurion image-guided therapy system from Philips Healthcare that cost just over $2 million itself. Banner – UMC Tucson is the first hospital in Arizona with this state-of-the-art technology, said Wendy Gonzales, cardiology director, Banner – UMC Tucson and South.
She said the project in the hospital’s former Central Check-In waiting area began in February 2017. The new suite opened at the beginning of August. See the flyer for its opening here: 
bumct_now-open-new-cath-lab_08-02-2018.pdf. For patient referrals, call (520) 694-6156.
“With implementation of Cerner (the new electronic health record platform) at the hospital, patients are checking in now on the second floor leaving that space open to us and this allowed us to accommodate the current volume in demand prior to moving into the new tower,” Gonzales said.
EXTRA INFO: Open House Photo Gallery
For images from the open house on Sept. 13, see this link to a photo album on the DOM Facebook webpage.
The suite is scheduled to be transferred to the new nine-story, Banner – UMC Tucson hospital tower in April 2019 before the tower opens for patients next spring, she added.
Gonzales congratulated the UA Electrophysiology (EP) faculty under the leadership of Mathew Hutchinson, MD, professor of medicine, UA Sarver Heart Center member, and director of the Cardiac Electrophysiology Fellowship Program, UA Division of Cardiology, and the Cardiac Electrophysiology Program, Banner – UMC Tucson, for championing this multimillion-dollar project.
“The opening of our new state-of-the-art EP laboratory reaffirms BUMC-Tucson’s commitment to provide the most innovative and comprehensive cardiac rhythm care for patients in Southern Arizona,” Dr. Hutchinson said.
EP faculty will use the new Azurion system (click images above to enlarge) to conduct routine and complex catheter-based procedures to treat arrhythmias, including atrial fibrillation. These minimally invasive interventions reduce the risks and recovery time of traditional surgical approaches.
Other benefits of this system as well as such catheter-based interventions include high-quality imaging and excellent visibility, low radiation levels for patients, as well as shorter hospital stays without the pain of a large incision and less visible surgical scarring.
The Azurion system boasts an ergonomic design and intuitive user interface that optimizes workflow, enabling clinicians to swiftly perform both routine and complex procedures. It helps clinicians work more efficiently by reducing preparation and procedure time, enabling more patients to be diagnosed and treated.
In one instance of the system’s prior use at another facility, an interventional vascular department achieved a 12 percent reduction in patient preparation time, 17 percent reduction in procedure time and 28 percent reduction in post-procedure lab time.
Azurion provides high quality imaging, achieving excellent visibility at low X-ray dose levels for patients of all sizes. Its workflow innovations paired with this low-dose imaging capability will help clinicians treat patients more efficiently and provide superior care.
For patient referrals, call (520) 694-6156.
Questions? Contact Wendy Gonzales at (520) 694-6899 or wendygonzales@bannerhealth.com