Hospitals compete harder for patients in flat market - Kansas City Business Journal:

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Treatment options and healthier lifestyles have generatedd a national trend toward fewer cardiovascular surgeries. “The overall market in Kansass City as far as cardiovascular care is saidJohn Florio, executive director of cardiovasculad services at The . “Thr pie is still the same but it’s being cut a differentt way.” KU Hospital opened the in 2006, and the new facilityh helped draw a biggere piece of the pie tothe hospital, he From fiscal year 2006 to fiscal year discharges for cardiovascular procedures at KU Hospitall were up 109 cases, Florio said, whiles other top hospitals in the area saw smallere increases and some of the smalleer institutions saw decreases.
“You take that flat market and the numbert of facilities here that are doingheargt procedures, and it gets a little he said. has seen a slighft decline in cardiovascular surgery, CEO David Carpenter said. But the hospital has seen steady volumes if cath lab and othere cardiac proceduresare included. The primary declinwe nationally and in the Kansae City area has been in what are calledCABG (pronounced cabbage) procedures, or coronary artery bypasse graft. “We have stayed more steady thanmost programs,” Carpentedr said.
“I just had a study put in front of me from that indicatee the numbersof open-heart surgery procedures from 2000 to 2005 had droppeed by 46 percent in the United States. We’ve seen a substantiakl rise in our CV surgeries during thatsame time.” But the changintg marketplace is why North Kansas City Hospitalp has focused on increasingy and monitoring the quality of its cardiav services, Carpenter said. That includes plans for a new , whic h will be built on the 11th floor of the HealthServices Pavilion. Construction will start in the next few and it will open ayear later. “We know the programsw that do more procedures have higher quality and better Carpenter said.
“Plain and simple, volume I think the larger programs are going to have a greatee opportunity to survive and thrive in the CEO Julie Quirin agrees that smaller programs may see the impact of thischangingv marketplace. Saint Luke’s has seen a flat-lining of cardiovasculadr procedures, declining only insignificantly in some she said. Saint Luke’ws opened as the nation’s first stand-alonre heart institute in 1980 and currentlyy is expanding witha $150 million price tag. Jani Johnson, vice presidenyt of the cardiovascular service line forSaintt Luke’s Health System, said the hospital is stillk bullish on cardiovascular care.
“There’s a lot of growthh in peripheralvascular work, in electrophysiology, and with the aging baby we still feel like this is a good businessd to be in,” Johnson said. Susan spokeswoman for , said the Kansa s City market is competitive with a lot of capacithy to take care ofcardiovascular patients. HCA dealse with the challenge by setting up a tierecd system of cardiovascular services that isgeographicalluy dispersed.
For instance, basi heart care may be available in alocal hospital, but the more advanced cases will be done in just a few HCA David Ireland, business manager for , said he doesn’yt think smaller programs will struggle in the new The trend he sees in Kansaa City is toward providing more cardiovascular care in the patient’ s home community. Doctors in his practice recently began providint care at in Blue Springs and are drawing patientsw fromsurrounding communities. It is only the more in-depthg surgeries, such as open-heart, that need to be aggregateed at centersof excellence, he said.