- Comments - The Charleston Gazette - West Virginia News and Sports

July 19, 2008

Smaller W.Va. hospitals get angioplasty approval

Manchin signs bill allowing heart procedures without cardiac surgeon on site

Staff writer

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Gov. Joe Manchin has cleared the way - with one exception - for medium-size hospitals to offer life-saving heart procedures without on-site cardiac surgery units.

The regulations - approved by the state Health Care Authority last month and signed by the governor Friday morning - allow cardiologists at community hospitals to perform angioplasties and other procedures to unclog blocked and narrowed arteries to the heart.

At least seven West Virginia hospitals are expected to seek approval to begin performing life-saving cardiac catheterization procedures.

Read full story

Post a Comment

YOU MUST FOLLOW THESE RULES TO POST A COMMENT:

Keep it clean. Comments that are obscene, sexually explicit, racist or offensive will be removed. If you wouldn’t say it to your mother, don’t post it here.

Be civil. Don’t threaten to hurt anyone. Personal attacks, insults or harassment of any kind are subject to removal.

Be truthful. Don’t lie about a situation or person.

Keep it brief. Keep your comment to one post. Redundant or multiple posts in a row aren’t allowed.

Stay on task. Stick to the topics relevant to the story and discussion.

Let us know about offensive comments. Click the “Report Abuse” button if you think a comment is against the rules.

5 Comments

Posted By: Rebecca (8:22pm 07-19-2008)

Report Abuse

Steve makes some good points. Maybe that is why the American Heart Association, who has no finiancial interest and is simply concerned about quality of care, opposed angioplasty procedures at hospitals without onsite surgury.

Posted By: Steve from Sissonville (12:49am 07-19-2008)

Report Abuse

My brother in law had a catherization done at CAMC around 15 years ago and an artery ruptured. Their ability to perform an immediate bypass saved his life. Although the chances of this happening to you is extremely small, it's certainly not unheard of. Unfortunately, it seems that study results regarding the percentage of patients who require emergency heart surgery as a result of catherization/angioplasty complications are all over the map, with results always seeming to be skewed in the economic favor of whoever is funding the study (No surprise there!).
Does CAMC oppose this primarily because this ruling will negatively affect their bottom line? Probably!
Do the small hospitals support this because this ruling positively affects THEIR bottom line? You betcha!
Can medical consumers with life threating illnesses rely on medical hospitals and government to make decisions based solely of their medical needs without regards to profitability? NO WAY!!!

Posted By: Jackson (11:57am 07-19-2008)

Report Abuse

The Governor sided with these little hospitals solely for financial reasons - not because of what is best for patients. Shame on you Governor Manchin!

Anyone who has a heart cath performed at a hospital that lacks surgical back-up should have their head examined too - but these small hospitals can't do that properly either.

Posted By: Augustus (11:16am 07-19-2008)

Report Abuse

These afterhours clinics that some call hospitals have no business doing heart catheterizations. Raleigh General almost killed my mother a year ago with a heart catheterization. She was sent home the same day with orders to come back in two weeks for a follow up appointment. Oh, by the way, they couldn't do anything for her, so the point of the surgery was nothing!

She had a heartattack that night and was flown to CAMC, fortunately she survived.

Posted By: mjytwocents (10:25am 07-19-2008)

Report Abuse

What if there are complications? I'll tell you what...YOU'RE DEAD! No cardiac surgeons around to fix it and you'd be dead by the time you got to the nearest facility. You'd be crazy to have it done somewhere without a cardiac surgeon standing by. Gezzz...