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April 1, 2008

Landmark wants to close heart-surgery center

Landmark Medical Center is asking the Health Department for permission to shut down its three-year-old cardiac surgery program because the program is not performing enough operations to sustain itself financially.

The hospital, in Woonsocket, wants to continue to offering angioplasty and diagnostic catheterization, however.

Spokesman Bill Fischer said Landmark needs to perform 320 open-heart surgeries each year for the program to be financially viable, but was expecting to do only 80 this year. The shortfall reflects a nationwide decline in heart surgery because of the success of alternative treatments, he said.

Fisher noted that while the Health Department considers the request, the program remains active. A heart operation was performed yesterday and surgeries continue to be scheduled.

Landmark’s program consists of three parts: heart surgery, angioplasty, and diagnostic catheterization. The hospital is losing $3.7 million a year on the surgery component, but making $3.4 million on the other aspects, Fischer said.

Last month, the Health Department announced that it was reviewing Landmark’s heart program, saying that the cardiac services jeopardized the survival of the financially strapped hospital. But Fischer says the $300,000 loss in cardiac represents a tiny fraction of the hospital’s fiscal woes. He said Landmark was being “proactive” in seeking the heart-surgery shutdown; its request came in a letter sent Friday.

-- Journal medical writer Felice Freyer

Posted by Brandie Jefferson  at 11:14 AM | Permalink

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