Hospital Wants Manchin To Sign
WMC: heart cath program should stayBy PAUL GIANNAMORE
With the stroke of a pen, Gov. Joe Manchin could change the shape of cardiac care in West Virginia.
Weirton Medical Center is hoping he does just that and is urging area residents to e-mail or call the governor to support his signature on a set of rules allowing angioplasties to be performed at hospitals that do not have full open-heart surgery units.
WMC has participated in a pilot program for five years, allowing it to perform angioplasties without being approved for full cardiac surgery. Under terms of the pilot program, Weirton must have a cardiac surgery team on standby at another hospital and must have a medical helicopter or other means available to get the patient to that team within an hour should something go wrong.
Out of nearly 900 procedures performed during the past five years, just one ended up having to go to a full cardiac hospital, according to Dr. Joseph Endrich, the hospital's chief executive officer. That patient, he noted, had elective - not emergency - surgery the following day.
"It's been very successful," Endrich said. "We've practiced this for five years, and we want to make it permanent. There are 43 other states that already allow for this. We do not want West Virginia to be last again."
The issue has prompted dueling advertisements around the state among hospitals on whether the pilot program should be made permanent and allowed to expand to other hospitals beyond the three that have conducted the pilot program - Weirton Medical Center, United Hospital in Clarksburg and St. Francis in Charleston.
The pilot program and its statistics have been reviewed, studied and commented upon, Endrich said. The West Virginia Health Care Authority has promulgated the standards for continuing the program and setting the rules for expansion to other community hospitals without complete cardiac surgery capabilities. Manchin has until Friday to sign the rules allowing the program to become permanent and expand.
Endrich said of the nearly 900 procedures performed at Weirton, some 257 patients were experiencing an acute heart attack upon arrival at the hospital. He also noted that the overall complication rate has been 2.3 percent, compared with the national average of 5 percent.
The community hospitals contend the six cardiac-approved hospitals in the state, largely concentrated in the state's largest urban areas, are trying to preserve market share instead of supporting a system that could save lives and reduce the impact of cardiovascular disease.
There are 74 hospitals across West Virginia, and Endrich noted just three of them invested in advertising portraying the angioplasty program as unsuccessful. The three are Wheeling Hospital, St. Joseph's Hospital and Charleston Area Medical Center, which are among the six cardiac hospitals in West Virginia.
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Katabatic
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07-18-08 10:41 AM
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Considering the population base of Weirton, it sounds like they are cathing everyone with chest pain. Is it really indicated in all those patients ?
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