News Releases

October 6, 2005
West Georgia Health System is selected to participate in C-PORT Trial

(LaGrange, GA) The Georgia Department of Community Health today notified West Georgia Health System that it is one of 10 Georgia community hospitals selected to participate in the Atlantic Cardiovascular-Patient Outcomes Research Team (C-PORT) Trial.

This clinical trial, which will begin in early 2006 and continue for up to three years, will allow West Georgia Health System to offer angioplasty without surgical backup for patients who have been approved to participate in this trial. Until now, the state has allowed only hospitals that offer open-heart surgery to perform percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) as a treatment for patients experiencing a heart attack.   This C-PORT Trial will collect follow-up data to prior studies, which offer evidence that opening clogged arteries with balloons and other devices as the initial therapy for heart attacks may be superior to clot-dissolving drugs. If a patient should experience a complication during the angioplasty procedure, West Georgia Health System has entered into agreements with nearby hospitals that offer open-heart surgery, which allow for emergency transport and treatment for that patient.

  ìWe are ecstatic to learn this news because it will significantly impact our community in two ways,î says WGHS President/CEO Jerry Fulks. ìFirst of all, it means that during this trial our patients will have access to this lifesaving, high-tech treatment right here in Troup County and they will not lose precious treatment time being transported to facilities 50 or more miles away.

ìSecondly, our ability to offer interventional cardiology will enhance our ability to recruit new physicians to join our excellent cardiology team at West Georgia Health System,î Fulks continues. ìPhysicians want to utilize the skills they learn in their training, and our lack of interventional cardiology to date has inhibited our recruitment. I am confident that our involvement with the C-PORT study will only strengthen our medical staff and the services we provide our community.î

The WGHS Institutional Review Board, which is comprised of physicians, nurses, pharmacists and community leaders, will oversee the C-PORT study to assure that appropriate steps are taken to protect the rights and welfare of the patients involved with the study.

If Department of Community Health officials decide to open PCI as a treatment option to community hospitals at the conclusion of this C-PORT Trial, West Georgia Health System must apply for a Certificate of Need and receive DCH approval to continue offering this service beyond the trial period.