St. Mary’s Regional Heart Institute receives top rating

St. Mary’s Regional Heart Institute has earned a distinguished three-star rating from The Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) for patient care and outcomes in isolated coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) procedures. The three-star rating, which denotes the highest category of quality, places St. Mary’s Medical Center among the elite for heart bypass surgery in the U.S. and Canada.

The STS star rating system is one of the most sophisticated and highly regarded overall measures of quality in health care, rating the benchmarked outcomes of cardiothoracic surgery programs across the U.S. and Canada. The star rating is calculated using a combination of quality measures for specific procedures performed by an STS Adult Cardiac Surgery Database participant.

Approximately 20% of participants receive the three-star rating for isolated CABG surgery. The latest analysis of data for CABG surgery covers a three-year period, from July 2019-June 2022.

“Receiving the top rating from STS is confirmation of our commitment to improving the health and well-being of all we serve,” said Melissa Mielcarek, MSHA, MBA, FACHE, executive director, St. Mary’s Regional Heart Institute. “St. Mary’s has provided high-quality heart care for the patients of our area for more than 43 years and we are proud to receive this honor.”

“The Society of Thoracic Surgeons congratulates STS National Database participants who have received three-star ratings,” said David M. Shahian, MD, chair of the Task Force on Quality Measurement. “Participation in the Database and public reporting demonstrates a commitment to quality improvement in health care delivery and helps provide patients and their families with meaningful information to help them make informed decisions about health care.”

The STS National Database was established in 1989 as an initiative for quality improvement and patient safety among cardiothoracic surgeons. The Database includes four components: the Adult Cardiac Surgery Database (ACSD), the Congenital Heart Surgery Database (CHSD), the General Thoracic Surgery Database (GTSD), and the mechanical circulatory support database (Intermacs). The STS ACSD houses approximately 6.9 million surgical records and gathers information from more than 3,800 participating physicians, including surgeons and anesthesiologists from more than 90% of groups that perform heart surgery in the US. STS public reporting online enables STS ACSD participants to voluntarily report to each other and the public their heart surgery scores and star ratings.

St. Mary’s Regional Heart Institute was named a Mountain Health Network Center of Excellence in October 2019. To be named an MHN Center of Excellence, the clinical area must be recognized by the medical community, the public and accrediting bodies as providing the most expert and highest level of compassionate and innovative care. For more information about St. Mary’s Regional Heart Institute, visit www.st-marys.org/heart.