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Open Heart Campaign—Fact Sheet

A community need:

  • Gwinnett County is the most populous county in the United States without an open heart program.
  • Gwinnett is second only to Fulton County in number of residents, but Fulton County—along with smaller DeKalb, Cobb and Hall counties—all have open heart programs.
  • Gwinnett is among the top 10 counties in the U.S for population growth between 2000 and 2006, with 168,000 new residents added in this period alone.
  • Gwinnett’s population is estimated at more than 750,000, accounting for more than 8 percent of the state’s population.
  • By 2010, Gwinnett will be the largest county in Georgia with more than 870,000 residents.  By 2015, it will be the only county in Georgia with more than 1 million residents.

A medical need:

  • There were more than 440 open heart surgery cases performed on Gwinnett residents in 2005—approximately 12 percent of all open heart surgery cases in the 20-county metro area.
  • With these numbers, and a rapidly increasing population, Gwinnett can support its own open heart program.

A need for better accessibility:

  • The open heart facilities that GMC must rely on in absence of its own program are not effectively accessible to the residents of Gwinnett and the surrounding communities we serve.
  • The nearest open heart facility is 24 miles from GMC with driving times in excess of 30 minutes even under ideal conditions.
  • Most routes to the nearest facility require travel onto three major arteries with well-known congestion—Hwy 316, I-85 and I-285.
  • The Atlanta metro area ranks fourth among 85 urban areas nationally in terms of the number of annual delayed travel hours according to the 2005 Urban Mobility Report.
  • Traffic-related delays directly contribute to delays in patient transport and treatment.

An Emergency Department in need:

  • GMC’s Emergency Department is among the top four busiest in the state, with more than 100,000 visits annually.  Each of the other top three have open heart facilities within their hospitals.
  • More than 8,000 patients annually are treated in GMC’s Lawrenceville Emergency Department for cardiac-related issues.
  • More than 20 percent of patients with cardiac-related symptoms are admitted to GMC due to the severity of their condition.
  • Given existing travel distance to an open heart facility combined with often heavy traffic volume, transport to other facilities is not always a viable option for open heart surgery or angioplasty patients.