Published on June 23, 2010
Southern Regional Withdraws Open Heart Application To Address State Questions
Southern Regional Health System announced today it had withdrawn its application for a certificate of need (CON) to provide open heart services in order to address additional questions from the Georgia Department of Community Health (DCH). The hospital is in the process of evaluating feedback from DCH and will make a determination about how best to proceed in the near future.
"The Department of Community Health has certain concerns and questions that we were not able to address prior to the June 19 decision date," said Steve Mahan, FACHE, Southern Regional's president and CEO. "We made a judgment that the best way to keep the process moving was to withdraw the current application, and then take time to address issues identified by the Department."
"This is a little bit of a setback, but it's just part of the process," said Mahan. "The CON review process has strict deadlines for submitting additional information, and we did not have the opportunity to address the Department's concerns at this time," he said. "We believe in the need for this service, and want to best position ourselves to bring open heart surgery to the Southern Crescent."
Ron Dodson, chairman of the Southern Regional Board of Directors, echoed Mahan's sentiments, noting that continued community support remains critical to the open heart campaign. "We need for people to keep the faith," said Dodson. "More than 2,000 members of the Southern Crescent community took the time to let DCH know they supported this open heart program, and we know DCH put a lot of stock in that community support. We appreciate that support and need for it to continue."
Southern Regional filed an application with the Georgia DCH for approval to provide open heart surgery services on February 22.
Although the Southern Crescent is home to 850,000 people, there is not an open heart program in the region. In 2009, nearly 600 residents had to undergo open heart surgery outside of the region. Traffic congestion between the Southern Crescent and downtown Atlanta constitutes a barrier to access to open heart surgery for a large, vulnerable population.
Southern Regional and Emory Healthcare, Inc. announced on April 13 an agreement under which Emory would provide cardiothoracic surgeons and other support to Southern Regional if Southern Regional secures state approval to perform open heart surgery at its Riverdale hospital. About a week later, Piedmont Hospital formally notified DCH of its opposition to Southern Regional's application.
Earlier this month, Southern Regional announced it had submitted to DHC more than 2,000 statements of public support for its proposed open heart program. Included in the materials submitted to DCH were personal letters of support from residents of the Southern Crescent, including Pike, Fayette, Spalding, Henry, Clayton, Butts and Fulton counties, as well as formal resolutions and proclamations of support from local city and county governments; business, civic and religious organizations, and political leaders. One of the letters of support came from former U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher, who now resides in Clayton County.
Southern Regional's cardiovascular program was established more than 30 years ago. Today, its cardiovascular services include a fully-accredited chest pain center and leading-edge echocardiographic services, a non-invasive approach to detecting and managing cardiac disease. The hospital's emergency department sees more than 7,000 patients annually with cardiac conditions. In 2006, it was one of a handful of hospitals in Georgia selected for participation in the prestigious Johns Hopkins Patient Outcomes Research Team (CPORT) study, which enabled it to perform angioplasties on low-risk cardiac patients. Last year, it became the first hospital in Atlanta to implant a pacemaker equipped with wireless technology, which notifies physicians of changes in the condition of the patient or the device itself.