The Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) awarded both Memorial Hermann Southwest Hospital and Memorial Hermann Memorial City Medical Center its highest rating of three stars for quality related to Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (CABG) or heart bypass surgery.
“We are honored our cardiac surgery teams have been recognized for their dedication to excellence,” said M. Michael Shabot, M.D., Memorial Hermann Health System chief medical officer. “This is an outstanding achievement that again demonstrates the quality and depth of our cardiac services, and the high caliber of medical and surgical experts at Memorial Hermann.”
The STS Adult Cardiac Surgery Database is the world’s premier clinical registry for cardiac surgery. It gathers information from more than 90 percent of the groups that perform cardiac surgery in the United States. For the year 2013, only 10 percent of the 1,041 participating hospitals across the country achieved a “three-star” rating — the highest category of quality achieved under the STS quality rating system.
The STS composite quality rating is based on a combination of 11 National Quality Forum-endorsed CABG processes and outcomes measures. These measures rate the performance of heart surgery programs in four areas: Avoidance of Operative Mortality; Avoidance of Major Morbidity; High Quality Intra-Operative Care; and Appropriate Perioperative Medication Usage.
“It is important to share this type of information so patients are able to make informed decisions,” said Angela A. Shippy, M.D., Memorial Hermann Health System chief quality officer. “This three-star rating from the Society of Thoracic Surgeons underlines the fact that the heart bypass surgery program at Memorial Hermann is among the top in the country.”
At Memorial Hermann, affiliated physicians and surgeons perform more than 50,000 heart procedures annually. In fact, more than 50 percent of Houston's heart care specialists are on active staff at Memorial Hermann hospitals. As a result, patients have access to the complete range of cardiac treatments, from interventional cardiology to electrophysiology, and advanced heart failure treatments such as left ventricular assist devices and heart transplants.