Hospital's open-heart proposal rejected

SPRINGFIELD - Plans by Delnor-Community Hospital in Geneva to begin an open-heart surgery program were rejected Tuesday by a state hospital planning board.

In a split decision, the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board voted down the proposed $2.9 million program, questioning whether the area needs it.

Susana Lopatka, acting board chairwoman, led the opposition, saying the hospital had not met the "minimal threshold" for approval.

Delnor applied for permission to do the surgeries in December. Since 2002 it has been performing diagnostic and interventional heart catheterizations. Open-heart surgery was viewed as the next step.

From October 2006 to October 2007, six patients were directly transferred from Delnor to undergo open-heart surgery. Another 13 Delnor patients initially discharged to their homes ended up needing open-heart surgery, according to Delnor's application.

The cardiology practice that supplies the doctors and support staff for 95 percent of the catheterizations done at Delnor recently said it might stop doing so unless on-site open-heart surgery backup is made available, as recommended by the American College of Cardiologists. That medical group performs cardiac procedures at other hospitals throughout Kane County.

But a recent state health department staff report on Delnor's open-heart application concluded the area served by Delnor doesn't need the program, stating that programs at other hospitals in the area are underused. The mission of the state hospital planning board is to prevent unnecessary duplication of health care services and unbalanced distribution of care, both of which could increase costs.

In April, Provena St. Joseph Hospital in Elgin and Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood sent letters to the state planning board opposing Delnor's plans.

St. Joseph Hospital has estimated that it would lose 10 open-heart surgery cases a year to Delnor.

According to a planning board staff report released recently, 51 hospitals within a 90-minute drive of Delnor provide open-heart surgeries. Among those, the report states, more than half perform fewer than 200 open-heart procedures a year, which means the state considers those facilities to be underutilized. Within 30 minutes of Delnor, only three hospitals don't offer open-heart surgery.

That, Delnor has argued, means people have come to expect such comprehensive cardiac care from the region's hospitals.

Delnor officials said Tuesday they were disappointed but not surprised by the ruling. They said they viewed their denial as a part of the process and vowed to return.

"I'm appreciative of the board's consideration and will be back in front of them in the future," said hospital president Tom Wright.

Reject: Delnor officials not surprised