Southcoast Hospitals Group Applies to Offer Cardiac Surgery
Seeks to Be One of Three Community Hospitals in Massachusetts to Perform Open Heart Surgery and Angioplasty
Southcoast
Hospitals Group, the largest community hospital in Massachusetts,
has applied to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health
to perform open heart surgery and primary angioplasty at its
Charlton Memorial Hospital site in Fall River beginning as early
as 2002.
The request to offer cardiac surgery would expand upon Southcoast's existing extensive diagnostic cardiac program and would serve some 600,000 people in the region who must now travel an hour or more for life-saving and life-prolonging procedures. Cardiac surgeons would live in the community and be available at all three Southcoast hospitals to address patient needs with surgeries occurring at the Fall River site.
"Residents in the South Coast region are in dire need of cardiac surgery services," said Ronald B. Goodspeed, MD, MPH, FACP, FACPE, president of Southcoast Hospitals Group, which also includes St. Luke's Hospital in New Bedford and Tobey Hospital in Wareham. "Southeastern Massachusetts has the highest incidence of heart disease in the state but has previously been isolated in terms of cardiac surgery services. The lack of a program in this area severely compromises patient access to needed care."
Southcoast's cardiac surgery program would be established under an affiliation agreement with New England Medical Center in Boston, which would work with Southcoast in the development, implementation and administration of all services, including quality control mechanisms for the program.
The application represents an expansion of the diagnostic cardiology and urgent intervention services currently available at Southcoast. The medical cardiology discharges at Charlton and St. Luke's are almost twice that of any other community hospital in Massachusetts.
"Southcoast has responded to the needs of its patient population by continually expanding the range of diagnostic and medical cardiology services provided," said John B. Day, president & CEO of Southcoast Health System, which includes Southcoast Hospitals Group.
Heart disease is particularly problematic in the Fall River and New Bedford areas, with an incidence that is 24 percent higher than the Massachusetts total.
Senator Mark C. Montigny, chairman of the Cardiac Care Commission and a longtime advocate of quality health care, said, "Anyone who understands the health statistics of South Coast residents will clearly see this critical service, over time, will save hundreds of lives. Thousands are forced to have an operation in Boston that should be performed close to home."
Southcoast recently completed new facilites to prepare for advanced cardiac treatment, including new operating suites, an expanded staff of cardiologists and new state-of-the-art instrumentation.
"There is growing recognition that the optimal delivery of cardiac services occurs in a setting where both diagnosis and treatment take place," said Dr. Richard S. Shulman, director of the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory at Charlton. "An integrated diagnosis and treatment program represents a unique opportunity for collaboration between the medical and surgical disciplines and allows for more effective patient management."