Spokane Cardiology PS, of Spokane, plans next month to open its own heart-catheterization laboratory.


Lloyd Guthrie, executive director of Spokane Cardiology, says the practice has leased a 3,500-square-foot space next to its office on the third floor of the Deaconess Health & Education Center, at 910 W. Fifth, and is nearing completion of remodeling work of that cath lab space.


Total cost for development of the lab, including equipment costs, is about $2.5 million, Guthrie says.


Spokane Cardiology has hired six people to work in the new cath lab, at which the practice will conduct diagnostic cardiac and peripheral-vascular studies.


Guthrie says the practice currently uses cath labs at the four main Spokane-area hospitals. It will continue to use those labs for treatment of patients who have suffered a heart attack or have another acute condition, but will use its own facility to treat patients who have undergone a stress test or heart scan that indicated more study is needed to determine if is warranted.


At hospital cath labs, Guthrie says, patients with less severe conditions often get bumped from scheduled procedures because patients who have acute conditions need treatment. By operating its own lab, Spokane Cardiology will be able to study its patients as scheduled, and patients typically will be at the lab for no more than five hours. If such tests confirm that intervention is required, a procedure will be scheduled at one of the hospitals cath labs.


The practice doesnt plan to allow physicians outside the practice to use the cath lab.


Spokane Cardiology, founded in 1969, has grown rapidly the past five years to a point where its patient volumes justify opening such a lab, Guthrie says. The practice currently has 15 physicians and a total of six nurse practitioners and physician assistants, up from nine physicians and one physician assistant about five years ago. Similarly, its support staff has grown to 100 full-time equivalent employees, up from 45 FTEs five years ago.


In addition to its office on the Deaconess campus, Spokane Cardiology has offices on Spokanes North Side, in Spokane Valley, and in Coeur dAlene, and its physicians provide heart and vascular care in several small communities in Washington and Idaho.


Spokane Cardiology is the second physicians group to establish its own cath lab this year. Eight physicians who own another Spokane cardiology practice, Inland Cardiology Associates PS, opened a diagnostic cath lab earlier this year on the fifth floor of the Heart Institute of Spokane building, at 122 W. Seventh.