Hometown Headlines reports the state Department of Community Affairs has rejected Floyd Medical Center’s recent push to launch adult open heart surgery, the latest development in a a two-year battle that intensified recently with a marketing push “More Heart for Northwest Georgia.”

The campaign, featuring Black residents of the community, was heavily promoted on social media. A separate website included this statement:

• Currently, there is only one provider of open heart surgery in our area. Our community deserves a choice.
• While 15 percent of our population is African American, African American patients receive only about 4 percent of open heart surgeries in Floyd County.
• Floyd is mission based and wants to be part of the solution.

Redmond Regional Medical Center, which offers such services to Northwest Georgia and Northeast Alabama, countered those claims.

Kurt Stuenkel, Floyd’s president and chief executive officer, had the following comment Wednesday morning:

“We are disappointed by the ruling made today by the Commissioner of Georgia’s Department of Community Health. We believe in the merits of our application for a CON.  Disparities of care exist and Floyd showed them. There remain avenues for appeal so we will consider our next steps in this process. In the meantime, we will continue to build upon the programs we already have in place to serve everyone in our community, particularly those who experience the disparities we identified.”

John Quinlivan, Redmond Regional’s chief executive officer, said:

“For over 30 years, we have worked to maintain an exceptional open-heart surgery program for our residents. We appreciate the thoughtful review by the Department of Community Health and believe this is the right decision for our community. We remain committed to offering a high-quality, accessible open-heart surgery program to all of Floyd County’s residents.”

The state, in a nearly 20-page long review, once again rejected the push.

Read more from Hometown Headlines