At Alaska Heart & Vascular Institute, we’ve long believed that high-quality cardiac care shouldn’t require a hospital stay or a trip out of state. That belief is at the heart of our Ambulatory Surgery Center (ASC), which has been operating since 2013 and is earning national recognition.

This February, an article by AHVI’s Cath Lab & ASC Director, Becky Joseph, BSN, RN, was published in EP Lab Digest, a leading national electrophysiology publication. Her feature highlights how AHVI’s ASC is expanding access to cardiac care for Alaskans, safely, efficiently, and at a lower cost. Read the full article here.

World-Class Care, Close to Home

AHVI’s ASC offers a comprehensive range of EP procedures, including device implantations, pacemaker implants and revisions, cardiac ablations for AFib, atrial flutter, SVT, and PVCs, and more, all with same-day discharge.

We are also proud to be the first ambulatory outpatient facility in the world to implement the Affera Mapping System with the Sphere-9 catheter, a next-generation technology that combines radiofrequency and pulsed field ablation into a single streamlined workflow. Since adopting this system, AHVI has achieved an average 18% reduction in procedure time.

Why It Matters for Alaskans

Research co-authored by AHVI physicians Dr. Mark Willcox and Dr. Steve Compton shows that EP procedures performed in ASCs cost approximately 36% less than the same procedures in a hospital outpatient setting. In a state where access to specialty cardiac care comes with real geographic and logistical challenges, this can make a significant impact on both patient health outcomes and costs.

Following a CMS expansion of approved ASC procedures in November 2025, AHVI plans to increase our ASC operating days, bringing even more Alaskans access to the exceptional cardiac care they deserve, closer to home.