Heart Attack, Heart Failure Treatment Cited—

St Vincent’s Among Nation’s Best

BRIDGEPORT — St Vincent’s Medical Center was recently ranked among the top ten percent in the nation and first in Fairfield County for cardiac care, according to a comprehensive study released by HealthGrades, the nation’s leading health care ratings company.

A recipient of HealthGrades 2007 Cardiac Care Excellence Award, St Vincent’s was recognized in the areas of surgery, interventions. and the treatment of heart attack and heart failure. It is the second consecutive year that St Vincent’s has earned national distinction for “Five Star” interventions in the study.

Susan L. Davis, president/CEO of St Vincent’s Health Services, said that the ranking is a reflection of the “teamwork, focus, and commitment to patients at St Vincent’s, where quality patient care is the top priority.”

“Recognition from an objective, independent source such as HealthGrades validates the efforts our physicians, nurses, staff, and precare providers such as EMT to the people of Southwestern Connecticut every day,” she added.

St Vincent’s continues to earn national recognition because of the quality of its cardiologists, innovative programs, and constant advances in diagnostics, therapeutics, and prevention services, said Jose Missri, MD, chief medical officer of St Vincent’s and vice president, cardiovascular services.

“The award translates into countless lives saved and the effect it has on the entire community,” Dr Missri said. “This is about giving back to the community that supports us, giving life back to families that trust us with their loved ones.”

As part of its ninth annual Hospital Quality in America Study, HealthGrades independently analyzed more than 5,000 hospitals in all 50 states and the District of Columbia for its 2007 ratings, objectively assessing their clinical outcomes and quality. The 40 million hospitalization records utilized in the assessment are publicly available and licensed from the federal government’s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

The HealthGrades ratings take into account varying degrees of patient severity from hospital to hospital and measure whether patient outcomes for each of more than two dozen procedures and diagnoses are better than expected (five stars), as expected (three stars) or worse than expected (one star).

“Consumers continue to ask for more and better information to help them in their health care decisionmaking,” said Samantha Collier, MD, HealthGrades’ vice president of medical affairs. “Our analysis provides an apples-to-apples comparison of hospital performance by procedure or diagnosis, and it is evident there is significant variance between individual hospitals. For St Vincent’s to rank among the nation’s best reflects the efforts of everybody in the organization, and should be very comforting to area residents.”

The 2007 HealthGrades ratings for all hospitals nationwide are available, free of charge, on HealthGrades’ consumer website, www.healthgrades.com. More than three million individuals and employees of more than 125 major employers visit the HealthGrades website every month to access quality information about hospitals, nursing homes, and physicians.

HealthGrades also provides consumers and payers with detailed assessments of hospitals’ patient-safety outcomes, based on indicators developed by the US Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

St Vincent’s emerged as a regional heart center in the 1980s, when its angioplasty program became one of the busiest and most successful in New England. Based on the success of its angioplasty and open heart surgery programs, St Vincent’s was twice named a “Top 100” heart hospital.

As one of the largest angioplasty programs in New England, St Vincent’s introduced PAMI (primary angioplasty for myocardial infarction) program in 1995 that saved lives and set the standards in emergency care by assuring the availability of emergency angioplasty within one hour, 24 hours a day. Because of the large volume of patients, the St Vincent’s angioplasty program also has participated in many national heart drug trials including stents, lasers, and medications used during the angioplasty procedure. 

HealthGrades is the leading health care ratings company, providing ratings and profiles of hospitals, nursing homes, and physicians to consumers, corporations, health plans, and hospitals. Millions of consumers and hundreds of the nation’s largest employers, health plans and hospitals rely on HealthGrades’ independent ratings to make health care decisions based on the quality of care.

For more information about the St Vincent’s Regional Heart & Vascular Center or for referral to a St Vincent’s cardiologist, call the toll-free Care Line at 877-255-SVHS (7847).