Surgeons who perform coronary artery bypass graft surgery at Morristown Memorial Hospital have earned a top rating from Consumers Union, the nonprofit organization that publishes Consumer Reports, the hospital announced.
The criteria were patient survival, absence of surgical complications, recommended medications, and optimal surgical technique.
Here’s the breakdown, from the hospital:
FROM MORRISTOWN MEMORIAL HOSPITAL:
CONSUMER REPORTS GIVES HIGHEST RATING
TO GAGNON’S CARDIAC SURGERY GROUP
Team earns three stars for technique, medications, patient survival for coronary artery bypass graft surgery
MORRISTOWN, NJ SEPTEMBER 10, 2010 – Consumers Union, a nonprofit, independent organization that publishes the popular Consumer Reports magazine, has given its top rating to Morristown’s Mid-Atlantic Surgical Associates for coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery. Mid-Atlantic Surgical is the group of cardiothoracic surgeons that performs heart surgery at Morristown Memorial Hospital’s Gagnon Cardiovascular Institute. The Consumer Reports on line publication published the information on Sept. 7, and is expected on newsstands in October.
There are more than 1,000 surgical groups in the United States that perform heart bypass surgery, and about 90 percent of them provide performance data to The Society of Thoracic Surgeons, a nonprofit organization that represents about 5,400 heart surgeons and other doctors nationwide who operate on the chest. Of this group, 221 – about 20 percent – agreed to share their data with Consumer Reports.
“Patients are making more choices and wiser decisions about their health care,” said John Brown III, MD, chief, cardiovascular surgery, and vice chair, cardiovascular medicine, at the Gagnon Cardiovascular Institute. “We shared our superior data and quality outcomes, now highlighted by Consumer Reports, to assist our patients in making those informed choices.”
The Society of Thoracic Surgeons uses 11 standardized measures endorsed by the National Quality Forum, a nonprofit organization dedicated to establishing national health care standards for performance improvement. The measures fall into four main categories:
· Patient survival
· Absence of surgical complications
· Recommended medications
· Optimal surgical technique
“Morristown Memorial Hospital has long been a top destination for its highly-rated cardiac surgery program, the largest in the state,” said David Shulkin, MD, president, Morristown Memorial, and vice president, Atlantic Health. “To receive yet another affirmation from a respected consumer organization only helps our patients and referring physicians by providing more information and reassurance about our top quality doctors and staff.”
Gagnon’s cardiothoracic surgeons performed 1,127 total open heart surgeries in 2009. Of those, 606 were CABG procedures, in which the surgeon opens the chest, reroutes blood through a heart-lung machine, stops the heart, grafts arteries or veins around the blockages, restarts the heart, and then wires the chest back together. This operation also can be performed off-pump, minimally invasively, or as a hybrid procedure in certain instances.
