Christiana Care Center for Heart & Vascular Health receives top ranking for quality

June 24, 2013

Michael K. Banbury, M.D., FACS, the W. Samuel Carpenter III Distinguished Chair of Cardiovascular Surgery, leads a team of highly skilled and experienced heart surgeons who perform approximately 600 open heart procedures each year. — Michael K. Banbury, M.D., FACS, the W. Samuel Carpenter III Distinguished Chair of Cardiovascular Surgery, leads a team of highly skilled and experienced heart surgeons at Christiana Care who perform approximately 600 open-heart procedures each year.

For the fourth consecutive time, the heart surgery program at Christiana Care Health System’s Center for Heart & Vascular Health has received a three-star rating from the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, the highest possible score.

The Society of Thoracic Surgeons has developed a comprehensive rating system to evaluate the quality of cardiac surgery at hospitals across the country. Of the more than 1,000 participating sites nationwide, only about 15 percent of hospitals receive the coveted three-star rating.

Medical professionals widely regard the rating as the gold standard by which to evaluate heart surgery programs.

Analysis of data covering the period from January 2010 through December 2012 placed Christiana Care’s performance for aortic valve surgery in the Society of Thoracic Surgeons’ highest quality tier, meriting a three-star rating.

“This Society of Thoracic Surgeons rating is a reliable indicator of a high-quality cardiac surgery team,” said Timothy J. Gardner, M.D., medical director of the Center for Heart & Vascular Health and past national president of the American Heart Association. “The reporting of surgery outcomes by the Society of Thoracic Surgeons is very thorough and precise, and is based on biostatistical analyses conducted by those most knowledgeable to evaluate the quality of heart surgery. This favorable rating by the Society of Thoracic Surgeons reflects the continuing commitment of our entire cardiovascular team to serve our patients as caring partners in their health.”

Christiana Care has a high-volume heart surgery program. Data from Society of Thoracic Surgeons shows that Christiana Care performs more than twice as many heart surgery procedures as the national average.

The Society of Thoracic Surgeons analyzes several key cardiac surgical data categories to determine which hospitals meet its stringent qualifications for the three-star ratings. This data includes avoidance of mortality, avoidance of major complications, use of arteries as bypass grafts and ensuring patients receive all appropriate medications pre- and post-operatively.

Founded in 1964, the Society of Thoracic Surgeons is a not-for-profit organization representing nearly 6,400 surgeons, researchers and allied health care professionals worldwide who are dedicated to ensuring the best possible outcomes for surgeries of the heart, lung and esophagus, as well as other surgical procedures within the chest.