NATCHEZ — Heart testing services at Natchez Regional Medical Center should be patient-ready by late November.

The Mississippi State Department of Health will decide Oct. 19 whether to approve the hospital’s much-hassled-over certificate of need to open a catheterization lab.

The health department staff recommended the certificate be granted to NRMC in June, but the final green light must come from Dr. Mary Currier, the health officer.

NRMC hospital board’s attorney Walter Brown said patients can begin receiving testing in the lab 30 days after the official decision is filed, which will be late November.

While the NRMC awaits its final approval, the new catheterization lab staff has kicked in to training gear.

NRMC Associate Vice President Amy Campbell said the new staff includes two lab technicians and one charge nurse, who were internal transfer hires.

The staff has been training at the catheterization lab at St. Dominic Hospital in Jackson for a week and will continue to train in Jackson through the rest of the month.

Cardiologist Dr. Brad LeMay said the staff is in good hands in Jackson due to the high caliber of St. Dominic Hospital.

General Electric, who manufactured the lab’s equipment, will also conduct training sessions as the manufacturer of the equipment in the Natchez facility this month.

LeMay, who joined NRMC in April through an agreement with the Jackson Heart Clinic, said NRMC’s agreement with the Jackson clinic will impact patients in Natchez by creating easy access to the files and other doctors in Jackson.

“It’s basically an instantaneous pipeline to the hospitals in Jackson,” LeMay said.

LeMay said he will be able to easily consult with the other heart doctors with specific cartiology specialties. By partnering with the program in Jackson, referrals and appointments will be a more streamlined process, LeMay said.

Electronic records also improve the way the LeMay will be able to communicate with specialists and technicians in Jackson because of direct access to records.

LeMay said his office switched to electronic records three weeks ago, which he finds preferable to paper files.

The Jackson facility has had electronic records for several months, LeMay said

Dr. Vikram Dulam, a cardiologist who used the NRMC catheterization lab in the past before its certificate of need expired, said he is excited about the lab opening and thinks it will be a good service for the community.

In addition to the cardiac catheterization testing, the new lab at NRMC will contain digital subtraction angiography, a service used for interventional radiology.

Dulam said digital subtraction angiography basically removes the image of bones and tissues to show only blood vessels and arteries for a clearer picture. He said cardiologists, as well as radiologists can use the service.

Cardiac catheterization testing scans images of arteries to determine if there is any blockage.

LeMay said the lab would be used for diagnostics, which are safe to perform without a resident cardiovascular surgeon on staff. The lab will not provide therapeutic procedures such as balloons or stints, which require a surgeon on site.

Both LeMay and Dulam predict between 40 and 60 patients will receive diagnostic services at the catheterization lab per month.

Sixty percent of local cardiology patients currently travel out of town to Baton Rouge, Jackson, Alexandria and McComb for medical treatment, LeMay said.

LeMay said the number of patients he sees in Natchez who previously traveled out-of-town for treatment increases every week, and he expects the number of heart patients staying in Natchez to grow with the opening of the catheterization lab.

Natchez Community Hospital officials filed for a certificate of need in December 2009 to build and operate a catheterization lab, and NRMC officials filed for a certificate of need in January 2010 to reopen its existing lab.

The state requires certificates of need to restrain health care facility costs and allow coordinated planning of new services and construction.

The Mississippi State Department of Health ruled in favor of NRMC in May. Natchez Community Hospital appealed the decision in June and requested an independent hearing for review.

Community Hospital withdrew its appeal Sept. 21, five days before the hearing was set.