Danbury Hospital Nearing 20,000 SignaturesTo Support Advanced Cardiac Care

DANBURY — With less than 1,000 signatures to go, Danbury Hospital is striving to reach the mark of 20,000 petition signatures to include with its Certificate of Need (CON) application for more advanced cardiology services at the hospital. Members of the public who haven’t signed the petition to support Danbury Hospital’s plans to bring angioplasty and open heart surgery to our region, are invited to do so now.

The hospital will file its CON application with the Office of Health Care Access within the next two weeks.  Hospital officials hope to convince state regulators that is is time to improve access to these health care services in the greater Danbury area.  The standard of care for treating heart attacks has changed, and the time and distance it takes to reach these services in other communities, such as New Haven and Bridgeport, does not allow optimal care for Danbury area patients, according to Paul B. Iannini, MD, chairman of the Danbury Hospital Department of Medicine.

 “Citizens from our area are being put at risk because we re geographically isolated and lack immediate access to advanced interventional cardiology,” Dr Iannini said. “Our patients are inconvenienced by having to travel, as are their families, to obtain these services from cardiologists that they have never seen before.”

“Most hospitals the size of Danbury in other states have these services, and our program will be of the highest quality with experienced teams who produce excellent outcomes,” he added.

A convenient, electronic petition is featured on the Hospital’s web site at www.danburyhospital.org.  On the site is a red heart campaign logo and the words “Danbury Hospital — Quality Cardiac Care”. Click on “Sign the Web Petition” to complete the form, and click “Submit Petition” to validate your on-line signature. There also is a printable petition posted on the web site and hard copies with collection boxes at displays in the hospital lobbies.

Only one signature per person is valid, whether submitted as a hard copy or web site petition.

Petitions and letters may be faxed to the hospital’s Community Relations Department at 830-2093 or dropped in either of the red collection boxes in the hospital lobbies.  For information about the campaign, call 797-7247.