Surgeons at Los Angeles-based Providence Cedars-Sinai Tarzana Medical Center are speaking out against a proposal to temporarily relocate the hospital's cardiac surgery unit, claiming the move could put patients at risk, reports Los Angeles Daily News.
The proposal would move the program to Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, Calif., while Tarzana completes a three-year, $540 million renovation project.
More than two dozen cardiologists, anesthesiologists and cardiac surgeons have opposed the proposal. They argue the extra transport time needed to take heart surgery patients to Providence Saint Joseph could hurt outcomes.
"To take away a program like this is very rare, and it's really putting the community at risk, because trying to transport a critically ill patient to St. Joseph's hospital in the middle of the day, as you know, the traffic can be pretty tough," Azmi Atiya, MD, Providence Tarzana's director of cardiac surgery and thoracic oncology, told Los Angeles Daily News.
The proposal is still in a "dialogue phase," Tarzana CEO Dale Surowitz told the publication. Providence would still need to gain approval from the California Department of Health and Tarzana's board before the proposal could go through.
"As we go through this construction, one of the things we are trying to do is ask how we can provide the best possible care to our patients," Mr. Surowitz said. "That decision hasn't been finalized nor reached."