LANSING - The Michigan Department of Community Health has approved Spectrum Health Hospitals' Certificate of Need (CON) application today making it the third program in the state allowed to perform heart and lung transplants.

The approval comes after Spectrum Health Hospitals - Butterworth Campus in Grand Rapids - submitted a CON application for heart and lung transplants on Oct. 1, 2009. As a condition of approval, Spectrum must perform a minimum of 12 heart or heart/lung transplants annually in the second 12-months of operation.

CON regulations are structured, in principle, to improve access to quality health care services while containing costs. Health care organizations are required to demonstrate need before investing in a regulated facility, service or equipment.

Spectrum joins two other programs that perform heart/lung transplants including Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Children's Hospital of Michigan at The Detroit Medical Center and the University of Michigan Health System in Ann Arbor. Henry Ford Hospital and Children's Hospital were approved as a joint program1996. For more information about CON, visit www.michigan.gov/con.