Texas Emergency Hospital in Cleveland, part of the Emergency Hospital Systems, reached a facility milestone in September having performed 100 cath labs since the start of 2022. After the milestone was reached last week, the cardiac catheterization lab department went on to perform another 12 successful procedures, bringing the total as of Monday, Sept. 26, to 112 procedures.
“It gives me great hope for our cath lab department and even more pride in our team here in Cleveland that we are providing a service to this community that other people over the years had abandoned,” said Michael Adkins, CEO of Emergency Hospital Systems. “It’s nice to be able to give something to the community that makes it possible for people to get medical treatment where they live and work.”
The cath lab team, under the direction of Lyn McClendon, has more than 150 combined years of experience. McClendon manages both cath labs in Cleveland and in the Deerbrook area of Humble. She has 33 years of nursing experience with most of those years working in a cath lab or an open heart surgery team. For 13 years, she has been a manager and director of cath labs.
TEH Nursing Director Cassie Kavanaugh recruited McClendon from Seattle, Washington, and said her “clinical background is amazing.”
“Her knowledge of cardiology is impressive. She has grown the program and I am super proud of the team we have here. I know we will see continued growth,” Cavanaugh said.
McClendon sees most of the patients who come through the Cleveland hospital and says most are surprised to find out that Texas Emergency Hospital now has a cath lab.
“They didn’t realize that we had the staff or the facility to help them here. We do outpatient procedures and they had no idea we could do that either. They are surprised to come in, get their procedure and then go home to recuperate,” McClendon said.
One of the earliest patients in the cath lab clinic was a Cleveland man who was given very little hope of surviving a heart condition from his doctors in the Houston area. Looking for a glimmer of hope, he came to Texas Emergency Hospital, received a life-saving heart procedure more than a year ago and is still living, said Jeremy Allen, a spokesperson for TEH.
“We are very excited to have reached this milestone of 100 cath lab procedures. It won’t be long until we hit 300,” Allen said.
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