The Salem Cardiovascular Center electrophysiology lab, located at Salem Hospital in Salem, Oregon, serves more than 360,000 people in a two-county region, and more from the Pacific coast to the Cascade Mountains. EP patients benefit from low employee turnover, new state-of-the-art facilities and award-winning cardiac care.

What is the size of your EP lab facility and number of staff members? What is the mix of credentials at your lab?
Salem Hospital’s EP lab moved last year to a new $220 million patient-care tower. Two of the seven new, 650-square-foot cath lab rooms are used primarily for EP procedures. However, we have access to other cath lab rooms for device implants if necessary. Our new rooms are 30 percent larger than the rooms in our previous space and have all new equipment. The Salem Hospital EP lab has three full-time employees and one part-time employee. We have two RT(R)s, one RN RCES (registered cardiac electrophysiology specialist) and CEPS (certified cardiac electrophysiology specialist), and one part-time RT. In addition, all 16 cath lab RTs are utilized in the EP lab for scrubbing and device implants. Our eight cath lab RNs rotate through the EP lab, managing patient care and sedation.

When was the EP lab started at your institution?
Salem Hospital opened its EP lab in June 2002.

What types of procedures are performed at your facility? Approximately how many are performed each week?
At Salem Hospital, we perform about 30 procedures a week. Some of the more common procedures include diagnostic and therapeutic EP studies, AV node ablations, VT ablations, pulmonary vein isolations, SVT ablations, atrial flutter ablations, and pacemaker, implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) and biventricular ICD implants.

What is the primary goal of your program?
Our goal is to provide our patients with excellent care, offering the most technologically-advanced treatment options for their medical needs in a patient-centered environment. We focus primarily on the combination of EP studies and device implants.

Who manages your EP lab?
Bryan Sprague, RT(R), supervises both our EP and cath labs. He was an RT(R) for 20 years in the Salem Hospital cath lab prior to becoming the lab supervisor. Lori James-Nielsen, RN, is the director of cardiovascular services. She helped start the EP program.

Is the EP lab separate from the cath lab? Are employees cross-trained?
No, our EP lab is part of the cath lab. The cath lab technologists do assist the EP team with scrubbing duties, and our EP RTs rotate to cath lab rooms, where they scrub, control and circulate. RNs circulate, sedate and monitor, but currently do not scrub in.

Do you have cross training inside the EP lab?
As part of our four-month orientation process, every employee is rotated through the different cath and EP labs. New employees learn the basics of each of the positions in which they will participate. One week of orientation is devoted to training for scrubbing devices in the EP lab. Our employees are monitored until they are confident in their role and have achieved competency.