CRESTWOOD CON for Elective PCI

HUNTSVILLE, AL – Crestwood Medical Center announced today that it has requested a Certificate of Need (CON) from the Alabama State Certificate of Need Review Board to permanently establish elective percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) services in addition to its existing diagnostic cardiac catheterization and emergency PCI services. This is the last step in obtaining full approval from the state to continue providing this service. On June 10, 2011, the Statewide Health Coordinating Council voted to adopt Crestwood’s adjustment to the State Health Plan to allow the provision of elective PCI on a permanent basis. Governor Bentley approved the adjustment on June 14, 2011.

Since 2006, Crestwood, along with its team of board certified interventional cardiologists, has been performing elective PCIs (also known as angioplasty) through its participation in the Atlantic Cardiovascular Patient Outcomes Research Team (C-PORT) trials, sponsored by John Hopkins Medical Institutes. The C-PORT trials seek to determine, using a scientifically based, randomized research method, whether elective PCI can be safely performed in hospitals that do not offer open-heart surgery on site. Due to its successful outcomes with emergent PCIs, Crestwood was one of only 35 hospitals in the nation and the only hospital in Alabama selected to participate in the Atlantic C-PORT trials for elective PCI services. Crestwood is also one of the first hospitals in the state to report a consistent door-to-balloon time of less than 90 minutes and currently consistently averages approximately 72 minutes. According to the American College of Cardiology, the national average is approximately 123 minutes. Crestwood’s fastest time to date is 14 minutes. Door to balloon time is defined by the time a patient presents in the Emergency Department with symptoms of a heart-attack until taken to the cardiac cath lab where a balloon is inserted to open affected arteries restoring blood flow.

Originally planned for completion by the end of 2008, the study had not yet found negative events, meaning that there have been no significant unfavorable outcomes associated with the procedure done at facilities without open heart surgery on site as compared to hospitals that do have open heart surgery on site. As a result, the term of the study was extended twice in order to enroll more participants and further improve the statistical validity of the study. The randomized portion of the study was ultimately completed on March 31, 2011. Following completion of the randomized portion of the study, Crestwood joined with other C-PORT participants in a registry phase of this ground-breaking study. It is anticipated that the study results will confirm the safety of elective PCI in hospitals without open heart on site.

Crestwood’s successful outcomes in this program garnered requests from other hospitals throughout the state as well as Georgia, New Jersey, North Carolina, Texas, and West Virginia for assistance in setting up new PCI programs. This assistance included providing streamlined patient enrollment policies and procedures, developing and facilitating data collection policies and procedures, and providing staff training.

Dr. Pam Hudson, Crestwood CEO, stated, “We are excited about the opportunity to continue high-quality cardiac service for our community; a service that we have provided successfully and with excellent outcomes for more than five years. Our team has continued to work with Alabama health officials to assure that our state health plan stays up-to-date regarding technology and advances in medical science. We hope for a favorable decision from the CON Review Board and that they will agree with Governor Bentley and the Statewide Health Coordinating Council that Crestwood should continue to provide elective angioplasty on a permanent basis for the benefit of our patients and our community.”