Media Release

For: Immediate Release
Date: Friday, March 7, 2008

HEALTH to examine financial impact of Landmark’s Cardiac Surgery program and failure to meet volume standards

The Department of Health (HEALTH) will evaluate Landmark’s Cardiac Surgery Program’s projected failure to meet conditions of its CON application for the minimum annual volume of Cardiac bypass surgery, and the impact this low volume is having on the hospital’s financial health. The Landmark Medical Center Cardiac bypass surgery program is required to perform five hundred (500) cardiac surgeries per year within three years of its opening date.  The most recent data provided to HEALTH suggests that they will fall well below their projected number of surgeries by the end of the third year of their cardiac surgery program, which ends in May 2008. Cardiac surgery is an expensive tertiary care service that has been decreasing in use nationally due in part to the increase in angioplasty. The financial impact of this program may be contributing to Landmark’s overall poor financial health and thereby jeopardizing the ability of the hospital to provided needed services to the population of Blackstone Valley.

“As we approach the end of the third year of this approval, it is an appropriate time to examine their ability to meet the minimum required volume of surgery services and the financial impact that the Cardiac Surgery program has on the hospital’s finances,” said David Gifford MD MPH, Director of the Department of Health. He added, “I am concerned that this expensive service may be adversely affecting the overall financial health of Landmark.”

In August 2000 the Department of Health approved Landmark Medical Center’s application for a phased implementation of Cardiac Services (cardiac catheterization, cardiac angioplasty, and cardiac surgery) in conjunction with their partner Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. This approval was based on the representation that the service at Landmark Medical Center would attract additional patients from a broader geographic area, and within three years achieve a minimum volume of 500 cardiac bypass surgeries.  The Cardiac Services Unit was projected to be financially viable and also bring other patients to the hospital, helping with its financial situation. 

The Department of Health (HEALTH) will form a review committee to advise the Director of Health about Landmark’s Cardiac Surgery Program. Specifically, this review committee will focus on Landmark Medical Center’s projected failure to meet conditions of its CON application and hospital licensure standards about the minimum volume of cardiac bypass surgeries, and the impact this low volume is having on the hospital’s financial health.