Tice Heart Center for Diagnostic Services to open

NEWTON - In less than one week, Newton Memorial Hospital’s Charles L. Tice Heart Center for Diagnostic Services will open its doors for business. Today, a final inspection is to be done, and pending any difficulties, Cardiologists Dr. David Buyer, Dr. Robert Masci, Dr. Paul Owens Dr. William Scarpa and Dr. Richard Redline, along with the support staff of the Heart Center will be able to begin helping Sussex County residents right here in our own backyard. About five years ago, several hospital Cardiologists attended a planning conference in Naples, Fla. According to Dr. Paul Owens, Medical Director of Cardiac Services at NMH, they realized at this conference Sussex County’s needs were growing and the hospital needed to grow with it. “We’ve gone from a very cautious way of heart care to Thrombolytics and the next step in heart care evolution is Direct Angioplasty.” Newton hospital applied to the state and was granted permission to open a Low Risk Catheterization lab, the main feature of the new diagnostic center and the first step towards future heart care goals at Newton Memorial Hospital. Dr. Owen’s hope is to meet the state’s requirements over the next two years, so the hospital can then apply again to be able to do full Angioplasties. Clint Ackerman, Director of Business Development, explained “the center needs to do 200 diagnoses a year for the next two years, and less than 25% of them can be found normal.” Less than half of those who undergo testing need to have an angioplasty. The center’s main procedure room-the Catheterization lab- houses the Carm GE Innova 2100. It is an all-digital cardiovascular and interventional Xray imaging system- the results and scans of which can be sent via the internet to either the doctor/patient consultation room, cardiologists’ offices or to another specialists office. The heart center also has a room each for the following: Holter monitors which the patient wears home, keeps a diary of activities, and then returns with the diary which is compared to the readings on the monitor; pace-makers which can be adjusted on site; EKG or electrocardiogram which can test for irregular heart rhythm; and echo stress testing. “Most people with chest pain aren’t having a heart attack. A stress test is done, then they stay overnight, and a stress test is done again the next day,” according to Dr. Owens. Currently, NMH’s cardiologists need to travel with their patients to Morristown for these diagnostic services. “Everyone (NMH) has been doing these tests for years, now we can do it here,” said Dr. Buyer. Doctor’s Owens, Redline and Masci combined have over 40 years of experience in their practice together, Cardiology Associate of Sussex County. Doctor’s Buyer and Scarpa, in their practice, Cardiology Medical Associate of Northwest New Jersey have over 20 years experience. Even the support staff of radiologists and nurses have a combined experience of 68 years in a Cath lab. Timothy Brewer, who came on last June as Director of Cardiac Services, was a previous director for the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital for 8 years. The physicians and staff’s experience is only one component that is important to Sussex County residents. As pointed out by Dr. Owens, “patients want their doctors doing their tests for continuity of care.” This new cath lab will enable the 5 cardiologists to offer care to the community where they are comfortable. Dr. Brewer even has some patients that refuse to travel for the testing, and the doctors already have patients lined up with appointments when the lab opens next week.