Orlando hospitals vie for heart-transplant programs

Both Orlando Regional Healthcare and Florida Hospital are filing applications with the state of Florida to start a heart-transplant program in Orlando. Both already are heavily marketing their cardiac services, using billboards and full-page ads to promote themselves. East Central Florida is the only region in the state without a heart-transplant program, but no other metropolitan area has more than one such program. Neither hospital system would say whether it planned to oppose the other's state-required application.