Broward’s heart pilot project has saved lives | Opinion

Broward County Commissioner Mark Bogen defends his plan to provide heart scans to Broward residents.

Two weeks ago, the Sun Sentinel published an opinion letter from Howard Tescher about the Broward County Health Pilot Project. Unfortunately, the opinion failed to let Sun Sentinel readers know all the facts.

Most importantly, the project has medically helped approximately 1,000 lives of Broward County residents. Some of these people needed open-heart surgery, while others needed stents or medication. All of the 1,000 residents had no symptoms — no signs that they had any medical issues before taking the test. The report issued by the Broward County auditor regarding this project found that 59% of those taking the test needed medical attention. However, the letter published by the Sun Sentinel failed to mention any of these facts. The entire purpose of the Health Pilot Project is to demonstrate that there is a preventative test that can determine if an asymptomatic person has cardiovascular disease and/or the likelihood of a person having a heart attack. The data clearly shows the success of the project.

Instead of focusing on the 1,000 lives that have been saved or medically helped, Tescher focused on problems in administering the Health Pilot Project. Issues identified by the county auditor are not uncommon when new, substantial programs are initiated. These issues are being addressed by the private company that was hired by the county to administer the program. The errors in the administration of the project in no way undercut the great benefit to the residents of Broward County. Regardless of the problems found by the auditor, the CT scans provided by four hospitals under this project have provided a great health benefit to approximately 1,000 of the 1,700 residents that took the test.

Wanting to expand to cancer and cardiac screening for Broward residents, I proposed to let voters decide whether they would approve a sales tax increase that would provide future funding for such essential services. I had initially proposed a quarter of a penny sales tax, as Tescher writes, but my proposal was reduced to just one-tenth of a penny before we decided to withdraw the proposal. At that price, and with the proven success of the Health Pilot Project, the benefits would far outweigh the cost.

Finally, it’s also important to note that the auditor did not find any issues with the heart test offered by the four Broward hospitals and confirmed that this has benefitted the participants. At one of our recent county commission meetings, many Broward residents provided video testimonials of how this test saved their lives. It is unfortunate that people like Tescher will fail to provide all of the facts, which clearly demonstrate how this project has successfully helped so many people.

We should never let it be said that we were too cheap to save lives.

Mark Bogen is a Broward County Commissioner.