The $20 million, 79,000 square feet facility has been strategically designed to provide immediate access from the emergency department, where many cardiac emergencies are first diagnosed. The new center will consist of two levels, with a new helicopter pad located on the rooftop.

The first level of the Baptist Heart Center will house all invasive and noninvasive procedures, including cardiac cath labs, echo-cardiology, nuclear cardiology, ultrasound, and stress testing facilities. Additional space is designed into the building to accommodate emerging technologies as the diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular disease evolves. Western Baptist’s Cardiac Rehabilitation department will also relocate to the center’s first level. The second level of the Baptist Heart Center will feature an auditorim to host advanced educational programs.

Registration for procedures housed in the new center will be located within the center, itself. Parking will be available on the hospital’s east end and north side, near Broadway St. The center’s main entrance will be located at the 24th Street side, while an ambulance canopy will face the Kentucky Avenue side of the facility.

For more than 25 years, Western Baptist has healed the hearts of many in the four-state region by offering advanced cardiac care provided by some of the most skilled and dedicated physicians in the country. Since bringing open heart surgery to western Kentucky in 1985, the hospital has performed more than 8,100 open heart procedures and it performs more than 3,000 procedures in the cardiac cath labs each year.

With a history so deeply rooted in the heart of the community’s health, Western Baptist Hospital President Larry Barton announced that the building will be funded, in part, with the $4 million bequest left to the hospital in early 2003 by Metropolis, IL resident, Martha Atwell McBane in memory of her late husband, Wayne W. McBane. “We are very pleased to extend our cardiac services to the region by establishing this technologically-advanced center,” said Barton. “The McBanes were loyal patrons of Western Baptist and through their generosity we are able to impact the lives of so many in our area with the services the new center will provide.”