White Plains Hospital gets angioplasty OK

[ONEEYEDMIC 68]

It only took forever for this to happen. Article says WMC has been doing this procedure since 1982. No more annoying Pumps beeping either! Money should be available for all the Major Hospitals in NYS!

http://www.lohud.com/article/20102120340

[NWFDMedic 58]

What law actually changed here?

I understand that WPH is going to be able to do angioplasties but the past procedure was that you had to do a certain number of diagnostic caths meeting certain benchmarks before you moved to the next level. Here in Orange County we've been watching St. Luke's-Newburgh and ORMC-Horton doing this for quite some time with a good degree of success. The concept behind the step-by-step approval was that you have to learn to walk before you learn to run.

[WAS967 97]

My understanding is that NYS is no longer approving "diagnostic" cath labs. Makes sense when you consider it's like finding a clog but then not being able to do anything about it - kinda silly IMHO. NWH is currently going through the application process for a PCI lab as well. Probably won't see that for a few years tho since it has taken this long for WPHC to get cleared.

[ny10570 745]

With the advent of these "partnerships" the state was convinced that the eval period was unnecessary. Essentially the hospital builds the cath lab and buys the staff from the established partner. In the case of White Plains the staff is coming out of Presby. White Plains was suppose to be approved two weeks ago, but was delayed some reason. As a result I got the chance to check out the new facility at Presby on its first day and its absolutely stunning.