Delnor Hospital officials say a state planning board’s rejection of their application for a heart surgery program on the Geneva campus is disappointing but expected.

The Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board denied the hospital’s certificate of need July 1.

Delnor officials plan to go back before the board later this year.

“Our job right now is to respond to the questions and issues raised by the board and do our best to resolve them,” said Philip Duffin, director of cardiovascular program development at Delnor.

With more people moving into Kane County and an aging population, an open heart surgery program is more important than ever for Delnor, hospital leaders said .

However, hospitals officials from Provena St. Joseph Hospital in Elgin, Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood and OSF St. Anthony Medical Center in Rockford are objecting to the program, citing a decrease in patients seeking heart surgeries at their facilities.

Hospital officials said the at-risk population in Delnor’s service area is projected to grow by more than 20 percent in the next five years — more than double state and national trends.

In October, Delnor officials submitted a letter of intent to establish the open-heart-surgery program to the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board, which was created to help control rising health care costs by issuing permits or certificates of need to allow health facilities to modify or construct facilities and to acquire major medical equipment.

If approved, some of the open heart surgeries that would be done at the facility will include coronary artery bypass grafting and valve replacement and repair.