Lawrenceville, GA, medical center pushing for open-heart program

Lawrenceville, GA-based Gwinnett Medical Center has submitted a filing with the state Department of Community Health addressing objections that may prevent the hospital from establishing an open-heart surgery program. The filing asks the department's commissioner to reinstate her initial decision in June 2008 to grant a certificate of need to allow the program. That decision was blocked when Piedmont Hospital, Emory University Hospital and Emory Crawford Long Hospital in Atlanta filed an appeal.