Sanford intends to veto bill to allow heart center

Measure would have given green light to Lexington Medical Center cardiac facility

By JAMES D. McWILLIAMS

jmcwilliams@thestate.com

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Gov. Mark Sanford said he plans today to veto legislation that would allow Lexington Medical Center to move ahead with the county’s first open-heart-surgery center.

Sanford, a Republican seeking re-election, said the veto probably would cost him votes in the conservative stronghold. But he said the state’s existing process for deciding whether hospitals should have certain services should be allowed to take its course without legislative intervention.

“We have a tradition of running too many things by legislative veto in the history of South Carolina,” Sanford said. “What we have been very consistently about as an administration is pushing in the opposite direction.”

A state agency ruled against Lexington Medical’s $5.6 million cardiac plan in October 2004. A judicial ruling on the hospital’s appeal is pending.

However, lawmakers April 20 passed a bill that would change the procedure for putting new heart centers in hospitals. The bill would not directly give a heart center to Lexington County. Instead, it would streamline the process for getting one in any county without a heart center, if residents there annually had a minimum number of heart procedures called therapeutic cardiac catheterizations, lawmakers said.

Lexington Medical Center fits that criteria.

State Sen. Nikki Setzler, whose district includes Lexington Medical Center, said he was unsure whether legislators who support the hospital had enough votes to override Sanford’s veto. Setzler, a Democrat, said he believed there was enough time left in the legislative session to attempt an override.

Tod Augsburger, chief operating officer for Lexington Medical Center, said the governor’s decision indicates Sanford cares more “about process than people.”

“We are very disappointed that the governor didn’t recognize the importance of this bill to the citizens of Lexington County and the patients that we serve,” Augsburger said.

Hundreds have attended public hearings on Lexington Medical’s plans, which received strong support from patients who live nearby and say they need quicker access to heart care.

Hospital expansions generally must be approved by the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control in what is called a “certificate of need” process. Sanford said the state either should follow that process or do away with it.

Lexington lawmakers said their bill was a legitimate exercise of legislative authority and was designed to create objective standards for allowing heart centers at hospitals.

Some Lexington County legislators were quick to criticize Sanford.

Republican state Rep. Mac Toole, chairman of the Lexington County delegation, said his county’s residents were “very disappointed that the governor has vetoed a bill ... dealing with health care for 230,000 people.”

State Sen. Jake Knotts, R-Lexington, said Sanford “voted against the people of Lexington County, and I hope that they don’t forget the action the governor took against them. And I will certainly be reminding them until November, every breath I take. ... There will be some heavy political repercussions in Lexington County.”

Sanford said his decision was not intended as a slight against anyone. “Too much in our state is decided by subjective standards. Not that the people advocating those positions are bad or evil or wrong, but ... it’s probably not the best way to run a business.”

Lexington Medical’s plan is opposed by the competing Palmetto Health and Sisters of Charity Providence Hospitals, which have their own heart centers. Spokespeople for both praised the governor’s decision.

“We’re very pleased, and fully support the governor’s decision,” said Jeanna Moffett, spokeswoman for Providence Hospital.

Palmetto Health spokeswoman Judy Cotchett Smith said the decision would promote consistency in the state’s health care decisions.

Reach McWilliams at (803) 771-8308.