Local residents had an opportunity to join FirstHealth of the Carolinas today in celebrating the completion of the Reid Heart Center: The FirstHealth Cardiac and Vascular Institute.

An open house is going on today at the 186,000-square-foot facility on the Page Road side of the FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital campus in Pinehurst.

Highlights of the open house included tours of the cardiovascular hospital. Refreshments and entertainment were also part of the celebration.

Named for longtime FirstHealth supporters Walter and Betty Reid, of Pinehurst, the Reid Heart Center consolidates Moore Regional's cardiac and vascular services into a single location. It includes 27 cardiology/telemetry beds, 30 critical care beds, five cardiac catheterization labs, two electrophysiology suites and six state-of-the-art operating rooms.

Two of the operating rooms have been specially designed as "dual-purpose rooms" for open-heart surgeries as well as interventional cardiac and vascular procedures.