Preparing to cut the ribbon to dedicate the new state-of-the-art Cardiac Catheterization Laboratories at Norwood Hospital are from left, Nicholas Ruocco, Jr., MD, Ralph de la Torre, Steward Health Care System CEO, Margaret Hanson, hospital president, Gerald Lorusso, chairperson of the hospital’s board of trustees, Paul Schwerdt, MD, chief or interventional cardiology, Joseph Carrozza, MD, Caritas chief of cardiovascular medicine, Polly Keister, RN, BSN, manager of cardiology, and Mohamad El-Zaru, MD.  The laboratories will treat their first patients this month and are expected to handle more than 700 cases this year. 

The $6.8 million dollar, 7,675 square foot facility will be used for emergency coronary artery angioplasty and stenting, which the hospital has offered since 1999.  Additionally, the hospital will use the new facility to perform elective angioplasty, which it has offered since 2006 as part of the Department of Public Health Trial. The labs will also perform peripheral angioplasties and implant pacemakers and defibrillators in the new facility.