Danbury Hospital Launches Petition For Cardiology Program

Danbury Hospital wants you to log on to show your support.

Following its announcement to pursue state approval to provide more advanced cardiac care, Danbury Hospital has launched an electronic petition on its website, danburyhospital.org.  There, the hospital is collecting signatures of support to accompany its Certificate of Need application to the State of Connecticut Office of Health Care Access (OHCA) later this year. 

To access the web petition, visit danburyhospital.org on the Internet.  On the hospital’s home page, there is a red heart campaign logo and the words “Danbury Hospital -- Quality Cardiac Care” on the right side of the screen. Click on “Sign the Web Petition” to complete the form.  Then click “Submit Petition” to validate your on-line signature. NOTE: Only one signature per person is valid, whether submitted as a hard copy or website petition.

Signed petitions will be accepted through early fall, and will accompany the hospital’s Certificate of Need application to the Office of Health Care Access later this year.

Earlier this week, the hospital filed a Letter of Intent with OHCA to bring the standard of care for treating heart attacks – coronary angioplasty – along with cardiac surgery to western Connecticut.

During angioplasty, doctors insert a catheter into the blocked artery, open the artery with a balloon and sometimes insert a metal stent to keep it open.

Danbury Hospital and Danbury Health Systems Inc. President and CEO Frank J. Kelly said patients deserve more timely access to these prevailing interventions.  “The standard of care for treating heart attacks has changed.  Additionally, time and distance are essential factors in providing the highest quality care.  Current State-approved programs are so distant. Delays due to traffic, weather and availability of transportation cause patients to recover more slowly and suffer more complications,” he said.  “We also recognize that distance from the present approved programs causes increased hardships on families, who represent an important part of the patient’s recovery and rehabilitation.”

Mr Kelly described the prospective program as a partnership with a leading regional or national provider of interventional cardiology services with an initial cost of $3-4 million funded through operations and/or donations. 

Keith A. Hovan, senior vice president of operations, who is leading the development for advanced cardiac services, said, “The medical community has already heard the call for change in cardiac care.  A variety of interventions to restore blood flow such as angioplasty and other procedures using balloons and stents are proving themselves as superior methods to remove or compress plaque in the arteries, as well as prevent reclosure of the coronary arteries.”

Plans for the interventional cardiology program follow several decades of advances in cardiovascular care at Danbury Hospital, which operates:

An extensive non-invasive cardiac testing center

The Jack and Richard Lawrence Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory, which has very low complication rates and maintains a 100% credentialed staff in invasive cardiology

A fully accredited echocardiography laboratory

Advanced, accredited nuclear cardiology services

Coronary care and telemetry inpatient units

A preventive cardiology program at the Marcus Cardiac Rehabilitation Center

An accredited non-invasive vascular laboratory and vascular surgery program