Cardiac cath lab at Penn State Health gets $1M state grant

The medical center plans to reconfigure its four cardiac catheterization labs and electrophysiology labs to create two new hybrid catheterization labs and to modernize the electrophysiology lab and two cardiac catheterization labs.

Six new positions are expected to be created in the first part of the five-phase project.

“The Penn State Health Cardiac Catheterization lab is a huge project in our community, one that will take several years, but drastically improve the quality of health care available in Berks County and also yield very high-level employment,” state Sen. Judy Schwank said.

“I am proud to support their work and see this money come to my district.”

The grant is funded through the state Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program and will support the first phase of the project, which includes updating outdated equipment and reconfiguring infrastructure to create the hybrid cardiac catheterization lab with the equipment necessary to provide patients with interventional radiology and advanced oncological procedures.

The medical center is undergoing a number of expansion and modernization projects. Penn State Health St. Joseph Cancer Center in Bern Township is undergoing a $5.5 million, 2,400-square-foot expansion. And in the fall, Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Hospital will open a 12,000-square-foot facility in existing space at Penn State Health St. Joseph.