OHCA Extends Cardiac Care For Danbury, Waterbury Hospitals

State health officials have certified Danbury Hospital and two hospitals in Waterbury as centers for open-heart surgery and angioplasty, significantly expanding the specialized care for cardiac patients in western Connecticut.

Waterbury and St Mary’ s hospitals in Waterbury and Danbury Hospital plan to have their programs operating between six months and a year.

With the approval of the three hospitals’  certificates of need by the state Office of Health Care Access, ten of Connecticut’ s 31 acute-care hospitals are able to offer primary and elective angioplasty, a procedure to clear blocked blood vessels, and open-heart surgery. The seven other hospitals are in the New Haven, Hartford and Bridgeport areas.

J. Robert Galvin, commissioner of the Department of Public Health, said travel time and demographics played a role in his decision to approve the programs.

“This is a huge win for our community. We are delighted with this wonderful news,” said Frank J. Kelly, president and CEO of Danbury Hospital and Danbury Health Systems. “This decision addresses a very important quality issue for our community, and will allow Danbury Hospital to follow through on its commitment to improve both quality of care and quality of life for our patients and our families.

“This longstanding regional access issue will finally be resolved in a manner that will deliver the most appropriate cardiac interventions and support one standard of care for all Connecticut residents,” Mr Kelly said.

According to Keith A. Hovan, senior vice president of operations at Danbury Hospital, the Cleveland Clinic Foundation will provide the training for the hospital staff. Following this training the hospital will conduct on-site testing before initiating the open-heart surgery component of the program. After performing 125 heart surgical procedures, the hospital will begin operation of the primary and elective antioplasty program.

The hospital will contract with three cardiac surgeons for the OHS program and three interventional cardiologists for the primary and elective angioplasty program.

“We expect full program implementation will take six to 12 months,” Mr Hovan said.

The hospital has estimated the cost of the project will be nearly $5.7 million.

“It’ s a great decision for residents of Danbury and the greater Danbury region,” said State Rep Julia B. Wasserman, R-106th District. “I look forward to the successful operation of the new cardiac care programs and I congratulate everyone who has worked so hard on this issue, especially the leadership and staff at Danbury Hospital.”

Danbury Hospital is a 371-bed teaching hospital serving a regional population of 350,000.

The Waterbury program will be established with the help of the University of Connecticut’ s John Dempsey Hospital and is expected to cost about $7 million, Commissioner Galvin said. A team of physicians will perform the surgeries at both sites, and the universities have agreed to share ownership of a new center to manage the expanded services.

Cardiac care facilities opposed granting the certificates of need, arguing that the expanded service would reduce health care quality and increase the cost to programs already operating.

Commissioner Galvin said the effect on other institutions would be minimal and not reduce their caseloads below “what would be considered reasonable levels for quality of care services.” 

Heart disease is the most common disease and the number one killer in the United States, and limiting treatment to patients is too dangerous, said Dr Andrew Keller, chief of cardiology at Danbury Hospital.

“It kills more than the next five leading causes of death,” he said. “Why would you want to restrict treatment to the number one disease?”

State officials decided in April to allow New Milford Hospital to establish an emergency angioplasty program, and granted the same to Greenwich Hospital this month.

Frank Kelly said Danbury Hospital had worked for more than a decade to reach the goal of offering the angioplasty and open heart surgery programs.

“By combining our outstanding medical cardiology programs with the full spectrum of cardiac interventions, we will dramatically improve our ability to serve patients with the highest safety, quality, and satisfaction available anywhere,” he said.