Whether a second open-heart surgery center in Elgin will improve local health care or put people at more risk will be debated Monday before a state panel that will decide whether or not the center is created.
Officials of St. Joseph Hospital on the city’s west side will try to convince members of the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board that the clinic is needed to handle a growing population.
But administrators from Sherman Hospital, on the east side, which has offered open-heart surgery for decades, argue that another facility would drive up costs and actually reduce patient care.
Furthermore, Sherman predicts it could lose $20 million a year, or 10 percent of its revenue–jeopardizing 250 jobs–if St. Joseph’s plan goes through.
In October, St. Joseph’s announced plans to spend $1.5 million to start a unit to perform open-heart procedures. The hospital already provides other cardiac services.
An aging population and Elgin’s expected growth to the west–planners predict 60,000 more people by 2030–prompted St. Joseph’s request to add cardiac surgery to its services.
“A cardiac surgery program [at St. Joseph’s] would improve accessibility for patients, reduce transfer risks and provide high-quality care to our community,” hospital chief executive officer William Brown said in a statement. “The need for our cardiac surgery program is already here, and our area is projected to grow by the thousands in the near future.”
Sherman contends that surgeons and care providers with experience working in high-volume open-heart programs produce better results for patients. Sherman handled 619 cases in 2002, with a mortality rate of 1.2 percent, compared with the national average of 2.5 percent.
“We have a high-volume program and also very high quality,” said Timothy Wadman, Sherman’s chief operating officer. “There is a relationship between high volume and quality. The programs that do more cases have better outcomes.”
St. Joseph’s proposed program and a recently approved program at Good Shepherd Hospital in Barrington, which Sherman unsuccessfully opposed, would drain 221 open-heart cases and 1,204 angiograms and angioplasties per year from the hospital, Sherman officials estimate.
If Elgin grows by 50,000 residents, Sherman officials say, the hospital could still handle the additional 70 open-heart cases per year that increase would be expected to generate.
The board will hear testimony at Monday’s hearing, to be held at 10 a.m. in the Elgin Holiday Inn, 495 Airport Rd.
