Hospitals mend heart surgery program
February 5, 2009 ·
A shortage of heart surgeons at WVU Hospitals last year left patients with fewer options. Under a more than 20-year old agreement, WVU Hospitals shares its surgeons with nearby Monongalia General Hospital. Now both hospitals say the shortage will be resolved within months as part of an updated agreement.
A shortage of heart surgeons at WVU Hospitals last year left patients with fewer options. Under a more than 20-year old agreement, WVU Hospitals shares its surgeons with nearby Monongalia General Hospital. Now both hospitals say the shortage will be resolved within months as part of an updated agreement.
Under the new agreement, the number of heart surgeons serving WVU Hospitals and Monongalia General Hospital will not increase to the staffing level it was previously. Still, WVU Hospitals CEO and President, Bruce McClymonds says the new arrangement will improve patients’ overall access to heart surgeries in this region.
“At one point at WVU we had six cardiac surgeons. We, as of today, have three. I think Mon General believes it will need two, so that’s five,” said McClymonds. “I think in the end we will have better access to those surgeons. We will have better availability of cardiac surgery services in this community.”
Each hospital will recruit its own surgeons, something WVU was solely responsible for before.
Monongalia General Hospital’s surgeons will be adjunct faculty at WVU’s School of Medicine. Hospital officials think this will help with recruitment.
“The construct of this relationship historically has dictated that all of the surgeons in the program had to be academic full-time faculty in the School of Medicine. So, I think one could argue, and it was certainly Mon General’s perspective that by only having one model under which cardiac surgeons could work in this market constrained the recruitment process,” McClymonds said.
At one point last year, WVU had only one heart surgeon on staff.
Despite this, the number of heart surgeries performed at WVU Hospitals did not decrease.
Meanwhile, Monongalia General Hospital temporarily stopped offering open heart surgery.
Monongalia General Hospital now offers open-heart surgery through an agreement with a surgical group in Charleston. The hospital plans to have its new surgery team in place when that agreement expires in the fall.