NorthBay opened its state-of-the-art cardiovascular operating room in April 2009, after years of planning.

The new $4.6 million surgical suite, the most sophisticated in the region and twice the size of a normal operating room, meant that a whole host of procedures could be performed for the first time at NorthBay Medical Center, including coronary artery bypass and heart valve repair.

In the months that followed, NorthBay Medical Center earned a prestigious national Chest Pain Center designation, and in August, cardio interventionists in the catheterization lab were able to go beyond the diagnostic procedures that have been performed for years and offer coronary angioplasty, also called Percutaneous Coronary Intervention or PCI. (See related story “PCI Puts Bounce Back in Her Step“)