Governor approves new angioplasty rules
Wayne TownerArticle Photos
PARKERSBURG - Gov. Joe Manchin Friday approved new rules that would allow more hospitals in West Virginia to perform emergency angioplasty without open-heart surgical back up, including Camden-Clark Memorial Hospital in Parkersburg.
As part of his approval, however, Manchin is asking for more review of part of the new regulations.
In June, the West Virginia Health Care Authority released its new cardiac catheterization standards, which officials at Camden-Clark believe will open the way for the facility to perform certain angioplasties and other heart procedures even without an on-site cardiac surgery unit.
Manchin had 30 days to take action.
"Any time we're charged with making a decision that affects the quality of health care for our citizens, it's a decision that must be carefully considered," Manchin said in a statement. "In this case, we've taken a very close look at data gathered for several years, and a number of other facts about the ability of our hospitals to perform heart angioplasty procedures that have the potential to save hundreds of lives, especially given our state's high heart disease rates and rural nature," he said.
Manchin asked the authority to revise the rules on transport times pertaining to elective cardiac catheterization.
"Due to the ambiguity in the term `medical transport drive time,' the current language in the proposed standards does not make it clear as to which hospitals could provide the elective procedure to their patients, so I believe the standards should be written to make sure that the appropriate hospitals are allowed to provide this service, under the strict guidelines and monitoring of the health care authority," Manchin said.
Of Parkersburg's two hospitals, Camden-Clark stands to gain the most from the new regulations since St. Joseph's Hospital already provides open-heart surgical services.
"People throughout the state should applaud the West Virginia Health Care Authority for following through with these new standards," said Greg Smith, Camden-Clark marketing director. "The state had initiated a four-year demonstration project that showed community hospitals could meet the high standards of care by providing patients with cardioangioplasty without on-site open heart backup."
Camden-Clark will file a letter of intent for a certificate of need with the health care authority to provide emergency angioplasty. The hospital currently provides diagnostic catheterization services.
Depending on the length of time required for the approval process, the hospital will be ready to begin emergency angioplasty whenever approval is granted, Smith said.
Camden-Clark has had surgeons providing stents and angioplasty procedures outside of the heart area for several years, Smith said. The hospital already has a catheterization lab and state-of-the-art endovascular surgery center on-site.
Larger hospitals with cardiac surgery units had fought the change. Charleston Area Medical Center, St. Mary's Hospital in Huntington and Wheeling Hospital argued the new rules would endanger patients and increase health care costs.
In West Virginia, there are six providers approved for cardiac surgery: CAMC, St. Joseph's, Wheeling Hospital, Monongalia General Hospital, West Virginia University Hospital and St. Mary's Medical Center.
"St. Joseph's Hospital has been performing emergency angioplasty, elective angioplasty and open-heart surgery since April 2004, therefore Parkersburg and the Mid-Ohio Valley have had these services available to the community for the last four years," said Jill Parsons, St. Joseph's vice president.
"The governor's approval of the standards unfortunately allows for duplication of services where they already exist. Duplication of these services will only serve to increase health care costs," Parsons said. "The American College of Cardiology guidelines state that a strategy of emergency transfer to an established center with a well-developed PCI program is preferred to the development of new freestanding programs."
Parsons said a new program in a community that already has these services places additional burdens on existing programs. New programs will not be required to recruit additional interventional cardiologists to the community so existing physicians may now be required to cover multiple sites rather than one location.
"The dilution of existing physician resources may result in delays for patients needing emergency intervention," she said. "A new program will not be required to have on-site open heart back-up services like St. Joseph's program."
Staff writer Brett Dunlap contributed to this story.
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RickWT
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07-19-08 11:33 PM
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West Virginia remains one of very few states that strictly regulates which services hospitals may provide. Does anyone know of any provable benefit to all these years of state control?
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ohwhataworld
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07-19-08 10:57 PM
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What the majority of articles like this fail to mention is that there are barely enough nurses to staff a medical floor, let alone any specialty units that may be opened. Recruiting physicians and making every medical option available to our community is very important. So is retaining qualified nurses to take care of the patients in our community.
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WVCommissioner
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07-19-08 7:19 PM
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Check back in two years, I bet only one or two hospitals will have taken advantage of this. Raleigh County certainly needs it, but just finding the Doctors to man it will be darn hard.
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luke304
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07-18-08 10:32 PM
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NEVER HAVE A CARDIAC CATHERIZATION PERFORMED UNLESS THERE IS ACCESS TO SURGERY WHICH YOU WILL NOT FIND AT CAMDEN CLARK. HOPEFULLY CAMDEN CLARK WILL BE ABLE TO RECRUIT MORE CARDIOLOGIST TO PREVENT DELAY OF SERVICES AT EITHER HOSPITAL. WE DO NOT WANT TO SEE A REPORT OF THE ORTHOPEDIC SITUATION.
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bobzim
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07-18-08 6:39 PM
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Thank God! Now the largest, richest hospitals no longer have a monopoly on this!
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