PARKERSBURG - An area insurance company is urging the state to reject an application by Camden-Clark Memorial Hospital to perform emergency angioplasty.

Fred Earley, president of Mountain State Blue Cross Blue Shield, sent a letter this week to the West Virginia Health Care Authority asking the state board to turn down Camden-Clark's Certificate of Need (CON) application to perform the emergency procedures.

In his letter, Earley said the community is being best served by St. Joseph's Hospital and its open-heart facilities.

''We feel the current SJH services represent the superior alternative in terms of cost, efficiency and appropriateness,'' he wrote. ''The application needlessly duplicates services currently available at St. Joseph's Hospital.''

Camden-Clark is seeking the authority's approval to perform emergency percutaneous coronary intervention, also called Primary PCI, or emergency angioplasty.

Camden-Clark's Certificate of Need is for emergency angioplasty only based on the standards set by the West Virginia Health Care Authority, said Greg Smith, marketing director.

''It is not for elective angioplasty, nor open-heart services,'' he said. ''Approval of this service by the West Virginia Health Care Authority will allow Camden-Clark Memorial Hospital Emergency Services Department to provide this service to any patient that has an immediate need of life-saving angioplasty.

''Our Emergency Service Department treats approximately 42,000 patients a year and the quicker angioplasty patients can be served on an emergency basis the better the outcomes.''

Earley wrote that CCMH has failed to adequately provide detailed documentation establishing the policies and procedures that will be used when a cardiac surgery transfer to another hospital must occur.

''None of the documentation contained in the application show a detailed plan, procedure or protocols for triaging patients and determining whether emergency transfer is appropriate, including a decision tree, contact numbers, procedural steps to be taken in facilitating an emergency transfer from CCMH to another hospital for cardiac surgery,'' he wrote. ''Since St. Joseph's Hospital is about one mile distant from CCMH, timely transfer of patients should not consume a major part of the golden hour (the first hour of the heart attack).''

Any expansion of service at Camden-Clark would draw services away from St. Joseph's Hospital, Earley said. He added that the standards require two full-time experienced interventional cardiologists must be available to support the program.

''It does not appear that CCMH has a firm commitment from two full-time interventional cardiologists,'' Earley wrote.

Patient safety should be a primary focus in reviewing this application, he said.

''Permitting the offering of Primary PCI at CCMH, which does not offer cardiac surgery services, would only seem to needlessly increase the potential for adverse patient outcomes,'' Earley wrote. ''In summary, MSBCBS is concerned the development of this proposed service amplifies health risk in the community, rather than remediates it.

''The application presents no pressing need to duplicate services in a manner which could increase risk to patients. As an affected party, we request the board reject this application.''

St. Joseph's Hospital applauded Mountain State Blue Cross Blue Shield's position on the matter.

''We are pleased to have the largest insurance company in the Mid-Ohio Valley and the State of West Virginia going on record with the Health Care Authority, citing patient safety, physician coverage, and duplication issues with the Camden-Clark emergency angioplasty CON,'' said Jill Parsons, St. Joseph's Hospital vice president. ''The letter from Mountain State Blue Cross Blue Shield to the Health Care Authority illustrates that opposition to Camden-Clark's CON is truly about patient safety and not about competition between two hospitals.

''It's about doing what is best for the patient. Emergency angioplasty is best performed at a facility that has on-site open-heart surgery, exactly the way cardiac services have been offered at St. Joseph's Hospital since 2004.''

Smith said the concerns expressed previously by St. Joseph's Hospital, and now by MSBCBS, are without merit, and in many instances, do not even apply to the emergency angioplasty services they are seeking.

''Our application is about bringing this life-saving treatment to the biggest hospital and busiest emergency room in the Mid-Ohio Valley,'' he said. ''It is about staying state-of-the-art, and delivering the best available cardiac care to the community. It is also about delivering this care in the most timely and safest manner possible.''