Mar 17, 2006 By Amanda Clegg 3 min read

Legislation to keep an elective life-saving procedure up and running at area hospitals passed in the state House of Representatives on Wednesday. Allowing Uniontown, Monongahela Valley, Jameson Memorial and Somerset hospitals to continue offering elective Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI) procedures, better known as angioplasty, House Bill 2443 pushed through the House with a vote of 185 to 10.

The four hospitals filed suit against the Department of Health after the state agency notified them in February that they must stop providing elective angioplasty unless they join a research study conducted by Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions in Baltimore, Md.

Paul Bacharach, president and chief executive officer of Uniontown Hospital, said the House passing the legislation pushed the hospitals over the first hurdle in their battle to see the bill made law.

“It’s really the first step in having this corrected,” he said, adding that he hopes the next two steps – a majority vote in the state Senate and the approval of the governor – “moves along quickly.”

The legislation will allow the hospitals to continue participating in a clinical trial, which permits a facility without an on-site heart surgery to provide elective PCI, instead of participating in the Department of Health’s research study, C-PORT (Cardiovascular Patient Outcomes Research Team), which would require hospitals to perform a minimum of 200 cardiac angioplasty procedures per year and every fourth patient to seek service outside their local hospital.

House Bill 2443 would give the hospitals permanent approval from the Department of Health to perform elective PCI and authorize the state organization to “promulgate regulations regarding PCI procedures,” according to a press release from the office of state Rep. Peter J. Daley (D-California), who co-sponsored the measure.

Hospital officials said the Department of Health has “refused numerous requests” to hear alternative proposals to the C-PORT study. One of those proposals, maintained in part by the University of Pittsburgh for 20 years, utilizes a cardiovascular registry established for research purposes by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.

Louis J. Panza Jr., president and CEO of Mon Valley Hospital, said the Department of Health’s refusal to hear another option to the study perplexes hospital officials.

“We can’t understand why the department refuses to meet with us to discuss this legitimate alternative to C-PORT, he said. “This entire dispute could be resolved if the department approved the use of the University of Pittsburgh study as an alternative to C-PORT, but it is difficult to achieve such a compromise if the department refuses to meet with us.”

In a previous interview, Bacharach said, if forced, Uniontown Hospital will join the C-PORT study in order to continue offering elective PCI to its patients. MVH, however, does not have the volume to meet the requirements of the study. The state gave the hospitals permission to continue offering elective PCI procedures until March 30.

Bacharach said House support for the bill was obvious by the overwhelming vote and hopes that the support continues when the bill goes before the Senate.

“It was very clear there was strong support for the legislation,” he said. “We got really great support from our local legislators. We have faith that Sen. (Richard) Kasunic (D-Dunbar) is going to be helpful.”