Correction added
Today is the deadline for Governor Joe Manchin to make a final decision on changes to cardiac care services at hospitals throughout the state. Last month, the West Virginia Health Care Authority approved a measure that could allow several hospitals to offer cardio angioplasty, without having full cardiac service units.
That proposal is causing controversy among hospitals and medical professionals throughout West Virginia. Hospitals on both sides of the argument are lobbying the governor hard.
Under the Health Care Authority’s new regulations, balloon angioplasty can be performed even if there is not a heart surgeon at the facility to provide backup if something goes wrong. Gov. Manchin has had 30 days to sign off on the plan, and that expires today.
Manchin's spokeswoman, Laura Ramsburg, says the governor has been receiving hundreds of calls and e-mails on the issue.
"We are hearing from both sides and individuals who have been impacted by the demonstration project or whose relatives have. Its not the kind of decision that you want to rush through, we didn’t intend to say lets go to the last day but it has taken that long to get all of the information and we received more calls this week that gave us more questions to ask and so it is a process and we want to take the necessary time to make a decision and if you look at how long it has taken us to get here, 30 days is relative short period," Ramsburg says.
All the calls to the governor’s office may be due to an advertising battle between the hospitals who already provide angioplasty and those who don’t.
Several hospitals that want to provide the services are placing ads in local newspapers. They imply the other side is misleading the public. Ohio Valley Medical Center is one of the ad's sponsors. Its Director of Public Relations Maggie Espina says the ads point out that it's not unusual for many hospitals to offer angioplasty without having full cardiac units.
"This is something that is not new to healthcare it’s new to West Virginia but it is being done in more than 40 states across the country and we feel it is important for people to know that that we are not going out on a limb and attempting to do something here that is not in the best interest of our patients," she says.
Currently, only six hospitals in West Virginia provide angioplasty and open heart procedures. They are Wheeling Hospital, St. Mary's Medical Center in Huntington, Charleston Area Medical Center, St. Joseph's Hospital in Parkersburg, Mon General Hospital and West Virginia University Hospitals in Morgantown.
Some of these hospitals are running their own ad that features a young boy crying while his mom tries to console him.
The headline reads, "West Virginia didn’t think his dad needed a heart surgeon."
Hospitals that already offer angioplasty and catherization services say the new standards will hurt patient care because the back-up expertise of surgeons won't be available in house at these other hospitals. They are also concerned about transporting patients if an angioplasty goes wrong.
Four years ago, the Health Care Authority launched a demonstration project allowing three hospitals to provide cardiac catheterization services without having a cardiac unit present. The Health Care authority says that project was a success and providing angioplasty services at more hospitals will give patients in rural areas access to some cardiac services.
The governor's office an announcement on the cardiac expansion decision is expected sometime today.
Correction
This story has been changed to reflect a correction. The original story said that West Virginia University Hospitals was part of an ad campaign against the Health Care Authority's decision to let more hospitals offer angioplasty and catherization services. The ad features a boy crying. WVU Hospitals has nothing to do with this ad.