Open Heart Videos

The Gwinnett County delegation held an open meeting on September 14 to discuss the open heart Certificate of Need situation for Gwinnett Medical Center. This video contains clips of that meeting, as well as post-meeting interviews with members of the delegation.

Gwinnett Medical Center President & CEO Phil Wolfe shares his thoughts on the state of Georgia's recent decision to grant GMC and the people of Gwinnett open heart services.

Phil Wolfe, president and CEO of Gwinnett Medical Center speaks to the crowd at the Gwinnett Chamber's State of Healthcare Luncheon on May 20, 2009. This was in response to a hearing officer's recommendation that the Georgia Department of Community Health reverse their approval of Open Heart Services at Gwinnett Medical Center in Lawrenceville. Learn more at OpenHeartGwinnett.org.

Gwinnett is the most populated county in the nation without open heart surgery. To address this critical lack of care for our citizens, Gwinnett Medical Center launched a campaign in 2007 to bring open heart services to the county. GMC saw a need for the more than one million Georgians in its service area and took action. Its aggressive campaign came to an end on June 5 of this year, when the hospital received the required Certificate of Need from the Georgia Department of Community Health. The open heart surgery program could begin operating as early as 2010, pending appeals from several Atlanta-based hospitals. For more information, visit www.openheartgwinnett.org.