Health Wellness 13
The Current
Wednesday, March 22, 2017
13
2017
Health, Wellness and Senior Living Kidney transplant program under review By BRADY HOLT Current Staff Writer
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n much of the country, concerns abound about a shortage of health care options. But in the District, medical services undergo rigorous evaluation to prevent over-supply. The “certificate of need” process is intended to ensure that medical services don’t become inefficient due to a lack of patients, in particular when a new competitor tries to enter an existing niche. This process is in the background of a complex legal battle surrounding George Washington University Hospital’s Transplant Institute, which began offering kidney transplants in early 2015. The hospital launched this institute over the objections of Med-
Star — whose Washington Hospital Center and Georgetown University Hospital had been the only District facilities performing these transplants — and of the D.C. State Health Planning and Development Agency, which had denied this application. Two years in, the Transplant Institute has transplanted 89 kidneys. But its existence is once again in question, with the D.C. agency weighing anew whether this program fills a valuable need — or, as it had concluded in 2013, spreads too few patients among competing facilities. George Washington officials hope that this time, the agency acts in its favor. “In just over two years, The GW Transplant Institute has made significant strides in improving
Resident’s epilepsy incident leads to police training boost By BRIDEY HEING Current Correspondent
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egina Avila and her fiance Giovanni Cappelletti last year experienced a traumatic event that has now led to changes in the Metropolitan Police Department. While walking to the bus stop near their home in the Georgetown area, Cappelletti experienced a convulsive epileptic seizure, falling to the sidewalk and sustaining a broken rib and other injuries. Avila arrived after receiving a call, with the police still on the scene. When she questioned an officer to find out what had happened, the response was chilling, she said: Not only did he not have time to talk to her, but when she later contacted his commanding officer to learn more, she was given similar treatment. “The commanding officer of the policeman who responded told me, ‘He’s an adult, he can take care of himself,’” Avila said. But as Avila points out, this isn’t actually the case. Epileptic seizures cause a debilitating burst of electrical activity in the brain that renders normal functions impossible. “Giovanni doesn’t ever remember his seizures, and it can take up to an hour for him to ‘come around.’ He can’t really speak or understand anyone, and he wants to walk around,” she
Brian Kapur/Current file photo
D.C. officers now receive more training about epilepsy.
said. For Cappelletti, who has little to no control over his post-seizure behavior, Avila fears the police could assume the worst. “The police were the first responders and didn’t seem to understand his post-seizure behavior,” she said. “I’m afraid his behavior after a seizure will be confused with disobedience or aggression.” This string of events showed Avila that a better understanding of seizure disorders was needed among the District’s officers. “I wanted the local police to watch out for him and others like him,” she said. Avila began working to spread awareness of epilepsy and related seizures, calling police officials See Epilepsy/Page 18
access to life-saving care and thus addressing an urgent unmet need in the Washington, DC region,” hospital spokesperson Susan Griffiths wrote in an email to The Current. “We remain fully committed to The GW Transplant Institute and look forward to continuing to provide these critical transplant services.” The program had overcome its earlier setback with the state health agency after George Washington University Hospital appealed the decision to the D.C. Office of Administrative Hearings, which is responsible for a range of topics that also include unemployment compensation, fire code violations and public space permits. An administrative law judge reversed the health planning agency’s decision in 2014,
Brian Kapur/Current file photo
Amid legal wrangling, D.C. is weighing whether a kidney transplant center is appropriate at George Washington University Hospital. granting the hospital the right to open the kidney transplant center. But after a lengthy review process, the D.C. Court of Appeals overturned the approval last fall, concluding that the Office of Administrative Hearings judge
hadn’t given sufficient weight to the health planning agency’s expertise. That judge’s role was to ensure that the agency had been fair and thorough, the court concluded — not to substitute its See Hospital/Page 16