WRH Celebrates New Cardiac Cath Lab
29-6-2026
A significant construction project to accommodate expanded cardiac catheterization lab services is now complete – a milestone in Windsor Regional Hospital's long planned hopes of providing additional life-saving critical care treatments to heart attack patients in our community.
The new cath lab, which will see its first patient next week, will nearly eliminate the need to transport patients across the border for this critical procedure, cutting costs to the Ontario health care system by hundreds of thousands of dollars each year. WRH has currently been the only hospital in Ontario with a cardiac catheterization program using just one table. As a result, WRH sends an average of one patient per month to Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit at a cost between $43,000 and $75,000 USD per procedure, with additional interventions potentially increasing costs by up to $187,000 USD per patient.
The larger space and 24-hour service means WRH can complete more vital cardiac procedures with the addition of a second catheterization table to connect more people to the care they need sooner, reduce wait times for both urgent and elective procedures and ensure timely access to essential services in the region.
In January 2023, the Ford government committed $30-million in funding to proceed to the tendering process for both the second cath lab table and cath lab renovation project (this funding which also included installation of a fourth Linear Accelerator (LINAC) to conduct radiation procedures for Windsor Regional Cancer Centre patients). Through this investment, over 17,000 square feet of space was renovated into a new and modernized catheterization lab suite.
The first cardiac catheterization table became operational in 1997 and has been located in the corner basement of the Ouellette Campus facility. The move to the 2nd floor brings the lab much closer to the Emergency Department and Cardiac Care Unit - improving efficiency and ease for staff.
The renovation work led by Lester Construction began September 3, 2024 that also included the relocation of the hospital's microbiology lab from the 2nd floor to the basement in order to make room for an expanded cardiac catherization lab.
"We thank the Ford government for investing in this necessary and long-awaited project which will save the lives of more cardiac patients in our region, and save on the costs to send patients to Detroit when we they couldn't be accommodated here. This is an important milestone in the history of the government's commitment to patient care in Windsor and Essex County," said WRH President and CEO Kristin Kennedy.
"Under the leadership of Premier Ford, our government is making historic investments to ensure Ontarians can access the care they need, where and when they need it. The new Cardiac Catheterization Lab at Windsor Regional Hospital, which our government backed with a $31-million investment, is going to ensure patients in Windsor can undergo the vital cardiac procedures they need, right here at home," said The Hon. Sylvia Jones, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health.
"Our government was proud to invest $30 million in 2023 to definitively move this project forward - supporting a second cardiac catheterization lab table, expanding the cath lab, and adding a fourth Linear Accelerator at Windsor Regional Hospital," said Andrew Dowie, MPP for Windsor–Tecumseh. "With this project now complete, waits are shorter and more patients across Windsor–Essex can access life-saving cardiac care closer to home."
"Our government is pleased to make yet another multi-million dollar investment to improve healthcare for people living in Essex County," said Anthony Leardi, MPP - Essex.
Thanks to the generous support of our community, $7 million in donor dollars covered the full local share needed to expand the cath lab, including the purchase of a state-of-the-art Hemo Cardiovascular Information System (CVIS), essential to patient monitoring and outcomes in acute care settings.
"Thanks to our dedicated community, we are proud to fund the local share to expand our critical cath lab services," said Cristina Naccarato, Executive Director of the Windsor Regional Hospital Foundation. "This expansion addresses an urgent healthcare need in our region. Our donors saw that gap and rallied together to close it."
Simply stated, cardiac catheterization saves lives. It involves a small, minimally invasive incision into an artery through the arm or groin that allows the threading of a catheter through the artery to the heart. This allows clinicians to perform a percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) such as coronary angioplasty to open up narrowed or blocked segments of a coronary artery for both emergency patients and scheduled procedures. It is also used as a diagnostic tool to identify specific heart vessel issues.
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