Cullman Regional Medical Center is closing in on the 90-minute “golden window” from the time a patient in cardiac arrest arrives at a hospital to the time they receive an agioplasty procedure.

By early summer, CRMC will offer interventional cardiac services in partnership with UAB, CRMC CEO Jim Weidner said Tuesday.

“Anyone who has a heart attack at any time during the day will be able to come to CRMC and have the gold standard as far as heart attack treatment,” Weidner said.

In conjunction with its one-year anniversary as an independent hospital, CRMC hosted a luncheon for local elected officials at the hospital Tuesday. Weidner said while catheterisation labs at the Cullman hospital will be manned 24 hours a day, the new services will not include open-heart surgery. CRMC does not have enough cases requiring open-heart surgery to offer the procedures, he said.

“It’s an interventional cardiology program, which allows a cardiologist to perform angioplasty,” Weidner said.

He said the service would utilize the two catheterisation labs already in place at the hospital, and only requires a cardiologist to be trained in interventional cardiology.

“So we’ll have the capability to insert the balloon, and if needed, put a stint in to keep the vessel open so that the clot is released, and there’s minimal or no damage to the heart,” Weidner said.

The services will allow CRMC to become part of a small percentage of hospitals able to meet the 90-minute window recommended by the American Academy of Cardiology and American Heart Association. One in five hospitals nationwide can meet this goal, Weidner said.

During the presentation, Weidner said the hospital’s three-year strategic plan was recently drafted, and includes the possibility of a $5 million community campaign for improvements to the Emergency Room and Cardiac Center. The strategic plan also includes optimizing surgery and other services.

“They’re [the hospital boards] are in the exploration stage, and at this juncture the boards are not ready to say whether that campaign will move forward or not,” he said.

Weidner said CRMC contributes about $20 million in uncompensated care and receives $400,000 annually from the county.

CRMC’s year in review includes the following:

‰ more than 1,000 employees and volunteers;

‰ 100-plus physicians ;

‰ 9,100 hospital admissions;

‰ 31,279 emergency room visits;

‰ 879 babies delivered;

‰ 7,700 inpatient and out patient procedures;

‰ 68,500 procedures in diagnostic imaging;

‰ 36,400 lab tests performed.

Weidner said CRMC began 65 years ago with 10 employees and six medical staff. Now, 90 active medical staff practice at the hospital. He said CRMC is not experiencing a shortage of nurses seen in many areas of the United States.

“We are blessed with schools of nursing within the general proximity,” he said. “Most hospitals have to pull in from all over the country.”

CRMC will host another luncheon Jan. 24 offering guests an opportunity to learn about the 60-year history of the hospital, how the hospital balances its fiscal responsibility with its commitment to provide care to everyone in need regardless of ability to pay, and key points of the hospital’s strategic plan.