December 1st, 2008

Reports the Philadelphia Inquirer:

The failure to attract enough patients amid heavy competition among Philadelphia-area organ-transplant programs has closed one and put two others at risk.

The liver program at Hahnemann University Hospital and the storied heart-transplant program at Temple University Hospital are in jeopardy of losing Medicare certification – and government payments – for the high-profile and profitable operations.

Hahnemann and Temple were among a first wave of transplant hospitals nationwide to face intensified scrutiny of surgical volumes and outcomes from federal regulators. Both have until early May to get their numbers back up, and executives said they expected to do so.

Lankenau Hospital will shut its five-year-old heart-transplant program next week.

Organ transplants are one of several areas where the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has sought use its enormous financial clout to drive quality improvement.

Read the rest of this in-depth article at the Inquirer online.