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(Parkersburg) - St. Joseph's Hospital (SJH) announced today an agreement
with Charleston Area Medical Center (CAMC) to help develop an open-heart
surgery program for patients in the Mid-Ohio Valley.
"The most important thing for the community to know is that St. Joseph's
continues to pursue its commitment to bring life-saving open-heart services
to the Mid-Ohio Valley. We have never lost focus on this goal. Our
facility is ready, and upon approval an open-heart program can be
operational in 6-9 months. Today's announcement puts the Mid-Ohio Valley
much closer to that reality," said Sheryl Holdren, Vice President of Cardiac
and Community Health Services.
St. Joseph's Hospital and CAMC plan to file a joint letter of intent with
the West Virginia Health Care Authority in early July as the next step
toward the new program.
"We're pleased to be able to provide St. Joseph's with assistance and
consulting services in these initial steps toward establishing a new cardiac
program in Parkersburg," said David L. Ramsey, CAMC's president and chief
executive officer. "This is the first step in establishing and defining a
relationship between the two hospitals."
"CAMC has one of the five highest-volume programs in the country. Its
surgeons perform more than 2,300 open-heart cases every year," said Holdren.
"It just makes good sense to partner with a tertiary facility, such as CAMC,
who will share their vast expertise in development of a new program in
Parkersburg."
Holdren added, "The agreement does not preclude involving Camden-Clark
Memorial Hospital in the cooperative venture."
"We want to do whatever we can, given the current regulations, to assure
high-quality patient care throughout our state, Ramsey said, "and to work
toward the best possible system for delivery of health services for all West
Virginians. We believe today's agreement represents a positive step in that
direction."
Two years ago St. Joseph's Hospital completed a $21 million expansion
project, which provided space that will be utilized for the development of
open-heart services. In 1968 St. Joseph's opened one of the first coronary care units
in the state of WV and in 1988 a diagnostic catheterization laboratory was opened -
the first in the area. Since 1988, SJH has performed over 6800 cardiac caths.
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