Cath Lab Open for Business

Cody Regional Health’s Cardiac Catheterization Lab will begin serving its first patients today.
While the lab has been operational for much of this year, due to staffing its only use has been for radiology. That’s according to an article in the Cody Enterprise. But beginning today, the first cardiac catheterization procedures will be performed by cardiologists from Billings Clinic.
The Cardiology Center was opened to the public on Monday with an open house, where Mayor Matt Hall expressed his hope that West Park Hospital and Cody Regional Health will be, quote, “the health care hub of the Big Horn Basin,” endquote.
The Cody Regional Health Cath Lab now makes it possible for doctors in this critical access hospital to perform life-saving diagnostic and surgical procedures, including cardiac catheterizations, pacemaker placements, and defibrillator placements using the newest technologies.
Hospital officials say the new cardiac services will benefit not only the 57,000 residents of the Big Horn Basin, but also the tens of thousands of tourists who travel through the area each year. Now that the new facility is complete, many local patients will be spared the roughly two-hour transport to Billings for similar life-saving cardiac services.
Cardiologist Dr. Lewis Shuler began practice at the Cathcart Center on the West Strip in Cody in mid-August. Dr. Shuler will also see patients in Worland through the outreach clinic on the third Wednesday of each month.