BOARD VOTES 6-2 FOR ST. FRANCIS LAB

A state board has cleared the way for St. Francis Medical Center to add a second cardiac catherization lab despite opposition from a Cape Girardeau business group and the committee's own staff.

The Missouri Health Facilities Review Committee voted 6-2 vote Wednesday to approve the hospital's expansion plans, but with two restrictions.

St. Francis will be prohibited from raising its charges for three years for services in the cardiac catherization labs.

And, once the new lab equipment is installed, the existing lab can be used only in emergencies or in cases where "cut film" images are needed.

The new catherization lab doesn't rely on film, but on computerized, digital technology that allows medical personnel to see the full movement of the heart.

Hospital officials said the new lab, costing $1.76 million, should be in operation in two to three months.

The committee's action followed a one-hour hearing in Jefferson City.

The state committee's staff had recommended that St. Francis replace its existing lab with a state-of-the-art catherization lab rather than add a second lab.

That view was also shared by the Southeast Missouri Business Group on Health, which had argued strenuously against expansion.

Business group officials contended that with two cardiac catherization labs at Southeast Missouri Hospital, one at St. Francis and another in Sikeston, there wasn't the need for an additional lab.

Wednesday's decision marked the second time within the past several years that the state committee, over the objections of its staff, has approved a project or program for St. Francis Medical Center. The earlier occasion was the approval of the hospital's heart program.

Neither officials of the business group nor St. Francis executives were pleased entirely with the committee's action.

John Fidler, president of St. Francis, said the hospital would have preferred unconditional approval.

"I think we should have had full approval for the second lab," he said. 'I think it is clearly justified."

The committee staff reported that Southeast Missouri Hospital and St. Francis did 2,239 catherization procedures in 1993. But Fidler puts the total figure at more than 3,600.

"I think the staff made a mistake," he said. "They used the wrong figures."

Fidler was among a delegation from St. Francis who testified before the committee. Three local cardiologists also supported the additional lab as did a former heart patient.

Mary Dunn, executive director of the Business Group on Health, testified against the lab project.

Fidler expects both hospitals will see a combined 30 percent increase in catherization lab procedures in the next three years.

But, with restrictions on use of the old lab, St. Francis will be limited to using it only 20 to 30 percent of the time, he said.

Fidler suggested the hospital might be back before the state committee at some point to ask that the restrictions be removed.

Dunn said she felt the committee's action went halfway.

"Overall, I think it is better to have some of the contingencies than to not have them at all," she said. "Somewhere in there, I guess, there was a compromise struck."

But she said there is still a need to eliminate unnecessary and costly duplication of services at Cape Girardeau's two hospitals.

She wants the hospitals to cooperate to end the duplication of services.