Northside Hospital-Cherokee now offers Percutaneous Coronary Interventions – PCI (previously called cardiac angioplasty), marking a milestone in history as the first time this medical service has been available to residents in Cherokee County.  The first procedure was performed April 7 in the Canton hospital’s state-of-the-art Cath Lab.

PCI is a nonsurgical procedure that opens the heart’s arteries using a catheter with a small balloon attached to the tip.  PCI usually requires an overnight hospital stay and recovery time is about a week.  The procedure is extremely effective, causes very little pain and can take as little as 30 minutes to complete.  Northside Hospital-Forsyth became the first of Northside’s hospitals to offer this service in March 2010, followed by Northside Hospital-Atlanta in September.

"This latest technology represents a continued commitment by Northside Hospital-Cherokee to provide the community with more cardiac diagnostic and treatment options closer to home," said Billy Hayes, CEO, Northside Hospital-Cherokee.  "Our experienced team of specialized cardiac-trained nurses and technologists each have at least 15 or more years of experience in the field, so patients can be assured that we will be ready to serve them if the need arises."

Currently, no other provider in Cherokee County offers PCI.  In 2008, a total of 700 Cherokee County residents needed the service and all of them had to leave their home county in order to receive the necessary medical care.  According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Cherokee County is among the 1 00 fastest growing counties in the U.S.  Between 2000 and 2009, the county was ranked as the 29th fastest growing county in the country.  It also grew from being the 10th largest county in Georgia to the 7th.  By 2015, the state projects the population of Cherokee County to exceed 271,000.  The need for timely access to PCI will continue to grow with the population.

Northside Hospital-Cherokee is expected to primarily serve the residents of Cherokee County, since approximately 80 percent of the hospital’s inpatients, outpatients and Emergency Department patients originate from within the county.  In 2009, the hospital cared for more than 470 patients, whose principal diagnosis indicated significant potential for needing PCI.  Additionally, Northside Hospital-Cherokee is seeing a growing number of heart attack patients in the ER.  In 2009, the ho spital treated more than 100 heart attack patients.  Having an adult PCI program in place will allow Northside to provide the potentially "muscle saving" heart services without the patient having to be transported to Atlanta.

In addition to PCI, Northside Hospital-Cherokee’s cardiovascular program offers a wide range of prevention and education programs and various diagnostic services including cardiac catheterization, implantation of permanent pacemakers and AICDs (automatic internal cardiac defibrillators), stress tests, echocardiograms and nuclear medicine cardiac studies.  For more information, visit www.northside.com.

The Northside Hospital health care delivery system is a not-for-profit health care provider and has served north Metro Atlanta for 40 years.  With more than 2,000 physicians and 6,000 employees, the hospital sees nearly 700,000 patient visits a year.  Staffs provide a full range of health care services, including women’s health, cancer care, emergency care, surgery, specialty medicine and a wide array of outpatient services at many locations.  Northside Hospital offers high-quality health care at Northside Hospital-Atlanta in Sandy Springs, Northside Hospital-Cherokee in Canton and Northside Hospital-Forsyth in Cumming.