Interest in cardiac service still high
By BRETT DUNLAP, bdunlap@newsandsentinel.comPARKERSBURG - The West Virginia Health Care Authority is satisfied with the number of hospitals in the state with open-heart surgery programs, including St. Joseph's Hospital in Parkersburg, and has no immediate plans to change the regulations to make it easier for other medical facilities to develop open-heart programs.
However, it is opening the possibility for more hospitals to do emergency angioplasty, like Camden-Clark Memorial Hospital has applied to do.
The number of open-heart surgeries has remained consistent with no large-scale growth recently, said Sonia Chambers of the WVHCA.
Chambers attributes that consistency to the effect of pharmaceuticals that help with coronary artery disease as well as the use of angioplasty procedures and stints.
"We feel there are ample enough open-heart programs in the state," she said. "We don't have any plans right now to change that."
St. Joseph's Hospital received approval from the authority to provide open-heart surgery locally and conducted the first procedure in April 2004.
"We are proud that the West Virginia Health Care Authority granted approval for St. Joseph's Hospital and our cardiac team to provide open-heart and angioplasty services to the patients in the Mid-Ohio Valley five years ago," said Jill Parsons, a vice president at St. Joseph's. "The skill and dedication of our cardiac team, coupled with the resources we have invested at St. Joseph's, has made it possible for our friends and family to stay close to home to have these vital services.
"By having a solid continuum of cardiac care at St. Joseph's Hospital, patients no longer have to travel or be transported to Charleston, Columbus or other cities located hours away to receive these life-saving procedures."
The goal of providing advanced cardiac services to the Mid-Ohio Valley began at St. Joseph's Hospital since opening one of the first cardiac care units in West Virginia in 1968, Parsons said. Stress testing, echo procedures and a pacemaker clinic followed in the 1970s. The area's first cath lab was opened at St. Joseph's in 1988, followed by the launch of the hospital's cardiac rehab program in 1989.
"The approval to be the first to perform open-heart surgery and angioplasty locally came in 2003," she said.
St. Joseph's Hospital has done 800 open-heart procedures and served more than 2,200 patients needing angioplasty.
Although increasing the number of open-heart programs has not been a priority, one focus lately has been geared toward developing emergency angioplasty programs at hospitals around the state, Chambers said.
"That is becoming the standard of care more and more," she said.
Emergency angioplasty, or Primary PCI, restores the flow of blood to the heart, thus stopping the heart attack and further deterioration of the heart muscle.
Revised standards approved last year by the WVHCA allow for emergency angioplasty without the need for an on-site open-heart surgical unit. Demonstration projects at state hospitals have shown the procedure can be done without open-heart backup and not increase mortality.
CCMH recently completed an application with the authority for a certificate of need to perform emergency angioplasty as a life-saving measure. Officials at St. Joseph's have raised concerns, worried about the duplication of services locally affecting the quality of care and their hospital being better equipped to handle heart attack emergencies with the open-heart program on site. Camden-Clark officials said in an emergency, when time is of the essence, taking time to arrange and conduct a transfer is not in the best interest of the patient.
CCMH and St. Joseph's have worked together lately on a number of initiatives, and Camden-Clark having the ability to perform emergency angioplasty can help create a cardiac enhancement zone for this region, said CCMH marketing director Greg Smith, adding if an open-heart procedure is needed, the patient can be taken to St. Joseph's. However, in an emergency, CCMH should be able to do emergency angioplasty when it is in the best interest of the patient, he added.
"We are not looking at doing an open-heart program," Smith said. "Emergency angioplasty in the emergency room is becoming the standard of care nationwide."
As a Level III trauma center, CCMH is equipped to handle many types of emergency care and should be able to do emergency angioplasty as needed, Smith said.
Camden-Clark serves 43,000 patients annually through its emergency department, one of the busiest in the area.
"Having emergency angioplasty can only enhance patient care," Smith said.
