Hospital among 18 — out of almost 500 — to earn highest rankings
Sarasota Memorial Hospital is been rated among the nation’s top-performing hospitals for cardiac surgery in the July issue of Consumer Reports, the hospital has announced.
Only 18 of the almost 500 hospitals evaluated earned top scores from Consumer Reports in both valve replacement and bypass surgery, the two most common types of heart surgery, a Sarasota Memorial Hospital (SMH) news release says.
“The national consumer guide used 2016-2017 data from the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) adult cardiac surgery database for analysis and benchmarking purposes,” the release explains. “The rating reflects a hospital’s performance in key quality measures, including survival rates (percentage of patients who leave a hospital and survive at least 30 days after surgery) and complications (percentage of patients who avoid the most serious complications, including needing a second operation, developing a deep chest infection or suffering a stroke),” the release adds.
“Sarasota Memorial has earned consistently high marks from STS for quality outcomes achieved by its cardiac surgery team in recent years,” the memo says. In the latest STS release — issued in January — Sarasota Memorial was one of just three hospitals to earn the professional organization’s highest 3-Star rating in all five measured adult cardiac surgery procedures, the release points out: bypass surgery; aortic valve replacement; aortic valve replacement plus bypass surgery; mitral valve replacement/repair; and mitral valve replacement/repair plus bypass surgery.
“The 3-star ratings, which denote the highest category of quality, place SMH’s cardiac surgery team among the top performers of more than 1,000 cardiothoracic surgeons and cardiac surgery groups voluntarily submitting case records to the STS for quality analysis,” the release explains.
For more information about Consumer Reports’ heart surgery ratings and safety guide, visit: https://www.consumerreports.org/heart-surgery/heart-surgery-safety-guide/.
The list of hospitals recognized for superior performance in heart surgery is in the magazine’s July issue and online: