Two hospitals seek extension for Waterbury (CT) Heart Center

Two Waterbury, CT, hospitals are fighting to keep their heart center open, saying that heart attack victims could die needlessly unless the state approves an extension of the program. The Heart Center of Greater Waterbury was started in July 2005 at Waterbury Hospital and St. Mary's Hospital to provide open-heart surgery and angioplasty. It serves 18 towns and cities. The state's approval of the center as a three-year "demonstration project" has expired, and the center has failed to do its required number of open heart surgeries, however. Now the hospitals have asked the state Office of Health Care Access for a six-month extension of the contract.