After its opening in 2005, Northwest Medical Center Oro Valley, 1551 E. Tangerine Road, is expanding. This week it will open a new 48-bed cardiac center.

The hospital’s new 25,000-square-foot cardiac center was created as part of a more than $10 million completion of the facility’s fourth floor, which until now had been an empty shell awaiting expansion.

Dina Perez-Graham shows off the new cardiac center’s waiting room at Northwest Medical Center Oro Valley Advertisement

Dina Perez-Graham, the hospital’s director of inpatient services, said the new facility should help the hospital grow its cardiology business, which currently serves eight to 10 patients daily in its intensive-care unit.

"It’s truly an indication of dedication from our staff, physicians and volunteers to be able to expand so fast," said Shawn Strash, the hospital’s CEO. While acknowledging that Oro Valley’s population has been on a steady growth track in the past few years, he said the hospital’s expansion after just three years in business demonstrates that the facility is providing good care to patients.

This year "has been our greatest growth year — 40 percent growth," Strash said. "The first three years are key for a new hospital." He credited the hospital’s parent organization, Community Health Systems Inc., with giving "tremendous support" to the new hospital, as well as former CEO Paul Kappelman, who is now CEO at Northwest Medical Center, 6200 N. La Cholla Blvd.

The new cardiac center will accommodate the town’s growing population of residents 60 to 80 years old — prime candidates for life-threatening heart conditions. Perez-Graham said the center will perform many cardiac procedures, including catheterization, angioplasty and electrophysiology, but invasive procedures such as bypass and open-heart surgery will be performed at Northwest Medical Center.

The cardiac center’s 48 beds include 30 acute, eight intermediate intensive-care unit and 10 cardiac intensive-care unit beds. With the expansion, the hospital has a total of 144 beds. The new unit also houses areas for cardiac stress testing, cardiac rehabilitation services and a patient education center. A waiting room with televisions and computers features a panel of windows with impressive mountain views.

The new center offers some unique features, including all private rooms, most with exceptional mountain views, and sophisticated wireless monitoring systems that enable workers to keep track of both patients and fellow staff members at all times. A few of the rooms have windows that enable nurses to keep direct watch on heart patients who also may have other problems, such as Alzheimer’s disease.

While many cardiologists have sent patients to the Oro Valley facility in the past, doctors from Pima Heart and Desert Cardiology have most consistently used the facility and will continue to do so, Perez-Graham said. She added that the facility’s cardiac nursing staff includes at least six nurses with experience ranging from 10 to 25 years, and that half of the hospital’s 140 patient-care employees have cardiac training and experience.