SAFFORD — “We’re going to save lives here,” said Dr. Bart Carter, CEO of Mt. Graham Regional Medical Center. “We save lives with the trauma service, yes, but we’re going to save more lives with this heart service.”
Carter made his comments during the ribbon-cutting celebrating the grand opening of Mt. Graham Regional Medical Center’s new Cath Lab on Tuesday.
“The hospital board had the courage to make the decision to allow us to do this, and this will be the most impactful thing that we’ve done because people’s lives will be saved,” Carter said.
The hospital has contracted with Vital Solutions to bring in staff to operate the lab as well as train MGRMC staff for permanent positions. Meanwhile, the hospital is leasing a 600-foot mobile Cath Lab while design work is wrapped up and construction begins on a 750-square-foot cath lab addition to the hospital campus.
Cost to connect the mobile Cath Lab to the hospital and its systems was $400,000 to $500,000, and hospital officials said it will take three to four years before the permanent Cath Lab is constructed and operational.
Caro Gaethje, chair of the hospital board, said the board’s goal is to keep patients as close to home as possible, and a cath lab has long been a part of that strategy.
“For probably the last 12 year, we’re really been thinking about it,” Gaethje said.
What helped the board’s decision to move forward was the recent hiring of two cardiologists on staff — Dr. Michael Jerman and Dr. James Schmidt — which means cardiology patients will have access to local care 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
– David Bell Photo/Gila Valley Central
The new Cath Lab is the third expansion of services MGRMC has made this year. In July, the hospital was moved up to a Level III Trauma Center, and it opened its 32,000-square-foot Medical Office Complex 2, which houses Mt. Graham Obstetrics and Gynecology, Mt. Graham Orthopedics, Mt. Graham Spine and Pain, and Roadrunner Rehab.
Next to open will be MGRMC’s Copper Mountain Clinic Thatcher on the campus of Eastern Arizona College. The facility will be available as a clinic for residents on the western side of Graham County, as well as provide training for EAC students in medical fields of study.
Copper Mountain Clinic Thatcher is currently under construction and should be open by fall of 2026.
