Probe: 51 more may have received unnecessary stents
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An outside review of coronary stent implants in 2009 by two Westmoreland County doctors found 51 additional cases of patients at Westmoreland Hospital receiving stents that may have been medically unnecessary.
The review follows one announced in March that found that in 2010 the two doctors, Ehad Morcos and George Bou Samra, performed 149 coronary stent implants of questionable medical necessity.
"We offer our deepest apologies to these patients and their families," said Robert Rogalski, chief executive officer of Excela Health. "We are committed to working with each of them and to honoring our core values of transparency and quality throughout this process."
The two doctors are no longer on the medical staff of Excela Health and were not hospital employees, the hospital system said.
The hospital system said one patient who received a stent in 2010 died this year after undergoing a heart bypass procedure. Excela spokesman Alan Taylor said he had no other details about that death and whether there was any connection to the stent surgery.
There are at least 22 pending lawsuits against Excela and the doctors involved from patients who received possibly unnecessary stents.
Stents -- small, expandable mesh tubes -- are used in patients whose arteries to the heart have been narrowed or blocked by plaque. The stents are inserted in a process called catheterization to support artery walls to keep blood flowing.
The most recent review, which examined 520 patients who received coronary stents, found 51 instances in which the buildup of plaque was not considered significant enough to receive a stent. There is a small risk of a blood clot from a stent, which is most likely in the first year after insertion.
Excela Health said it has implemented several new initiatives since becoming aware of the stents, including seeking accreditation later this summer for its coronary catheterization laboratory from the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions.
The hospital system has no plans to review stents placed by the two doctors prior to 2009 because the preponderance of medical evidence shows that blood clots occur within two years, Mr. Taylor said.
"We consider this matter now to be closed from our point of view," he said. "We're moving on."
First Published June 23, 2011 12:00 am
