The Spectrum Health Fred and Lena Meijer Heart Center offers many kinds of leading-edge heart care. One of our more important specialties is "interventional cardiology," the medical science of looking inside the heart and its arteries to diagnose and correct certain heart problems, without the need for open heart surgery.

Thanks to the excellence of our specialists and our state-of-the-art heart catheterization laboratory, Spectrum Health interventional heart care stands apart from any other in the area: 

• We are the second institution in the U.S. to receive ACE accreditation for percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). 
• We perform the most stent/angioplasty procedures in Michigan with more than 2,200 each year.
• Our wide range of experience shows consistent, better patient outcomes for our patients.
• We are the only Grand Rapids hospital that has an open heart surgery program. Because we have this lifesaving backup, we are the only local hospital allowed to perform diagnostic, emergency and elective interventional procedures.
• Our patients have fewer complications and our mortality rates are lower than average.
• We have West Michigan's only accredited 24/7 chest pain center.
• Our chest pain center only sees patients with heart attack symptoms, for faster treatment.
• Our time-saving chest pain center can save lives and reduces the risk of heart damage.
• Our cardiologists continue to enhance patient experiences, outcomes and quality of care, by using transradial artery catheterization.

Inside the Heart Without "Open Heart"

If you need a procedure to diagnose or correct a heart problem that goes inside the heart, without "open heart surgery," it is called a "percutaneous coronary intervention" or "PCI." Our doctors are qualified to perform these special procedures with state-of-the-art equipment in our heart cath lab.

You may be familiar with the most common PCIs, such as "balloon" or "stent" procedures (angioplasty). The meaning of a "percutaneous coronary intervention" is simpler than it sounds:

• Percutaneous means "through the skin"
• Coronary means "of the heart"
• Intervention means "to come between to stop or change something"

A PCI procedure will:

• Require some level of anesthesia
• Go through the skin to look inside the heart and its arteries
• Diagnose and/or correct your heart problem

David Narloch's Story

Teamwork and new interventional cardiology technology saved David.

Read David's story.