Hahnemann to Discontinue Heart Transplant Services
Photo from Hahnemann University Hospital’s Facebook page
In an email to employees on Monday, Hahnemann University Hospital CEO Michael P. Halter announced that the institution would be shutting down its heart transplant program on May 27th due to “low activity.”
In the email obtained by the Inquirer, Halter told employees that the closure was not a reflection of “the high-quality care that has been provided to our patients.”
The institution also announced that it would end the program that implants heart assist devices that support weakened hearts as patients wait for a transplant.
Hahnemann will notify its patient network about the scheduled closure this week through a letter, a receptionist at Hahnemann’s Center for Advanced Heart Failure told Philadelphia magazine.
As the Inquirer points out, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, which tracks organ procurements and transplants, reported that Hahnemann performed only four heart transplants in the last two years compared to 129 transplants in the last two years at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, which leads the region in heart transplants.
The representative at Hahnemann could not comment on the kind of impact the closure will have on the patient network and the hospital’s workforce.
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