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Posted: 9:54 PM Jul 16, 2008
Heart Treatment Debate Raises Care Concerns
While heart health care is critical to West Virginians, a battle over who can provide treatment is pitting some hospitals against each other.
Reporter: Amanda BarrenEmail Address: amanda.barren@wsaz.com |
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5 Comments 
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- While heart health care is critical to West Virginians, a battle over who can provide treatment is pitting some hospitals against each other.
Hospital officials said this threatens to compromise patient care.
Currently, only hospitals with on-site cardiac surgery can perform an angioplasty, a procedure that clears blood flow to the heart. Smaller hospitals want the surgery option.
Gov. Joe Manchin has to make a decision on the issue by Friday. Meanwhile, both sides have launched emotional ads in newspapers throughout the state.
Officials at smaller hospitals say the ability to perform an angioplasty would saves lives instantly. Authorities at larger hospitals maintain that if something happens on the operating table, there is time lost transferring a patient to a facility that could save his or her life.
If Manchin approves letting smaller hospitals have the surgery option, West Virginia will be the 41st state in the country to allow angioplasties where there is no cardiac back up. Last week, the American Heart Association sent a letter to Manchin, recommending that he not approve this plan.
Latest Comments
Anyone who would allow a heart cath to be performed at a facility which lacked the ability to deal with things if they went bad (which is often the case) is a fool. I hope Manchin does the right thing and decides to protect the safety of of West Virginia's heart patients by not signing this. I had a heart catheritization procedure and had to be taken from the cath lab to the operating room due to complications. I am alive today because the operating room was in the same building and not miles away.
Wish there WAS better care here in the state. For the best, it's King's Daughter's in Ashland, Ky. and Dr. Richard Paulus.
Folks i all boils down to money. Why do the big hospitals oppose his so strongly? These procedures would be, in many cases, done by the same physicians that do the procedures in the larger hospitals. CAMC, WVU Hospitals and St marys see their numbers of patients transferred in decreasing, that is the real reason they fight it. CAMC fought the Open Heart Surgery program at Parkersburgh, until they found a way in. It is all about money.
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