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St. Elizabeth Health Center Named One of the Nation's Top Cardiovascular Hospitals When local business owner Bob Eddy began experiencing some health problems, his cardiologist ordered a heart catheterization which revealed 90 percent blockage in two of his ateries. After undergoing cardiac surgery at St. Elizabeth Health Center, Mr. Eddy says he feels great, has energy to spare and is overwhelmed by the care he received. “From the catheterization to the surgery, the quality of the treatment and care put my heart at ease,” he says. “I hear people talking about going out of town for heart care, but why would anyone go somewhere else when you can get such excellent care here?” Now, the quality of care at St. Elizabeth also has earned national recognition. St. Elizabeth Health Center has been named one of the nation's 100 Top Hospitals® for cardiovascular care by Thomson Healthcare. The Thomson 100 Top Hospitals® Cardiovascular Benchmarks for Success award recognizes the excellence of St. Elizabeth’s cardiovascular clinical and management teams as one of the top in the nation. The annual award is based on hospitals’ performance treating congestive heart failure, heart attacks and cardiac surgical patients. “We are extremely pleased with the recognition because it is based on an independent review of patients' outcome data,” says Timothy Hunter, M.D., director of cardiothoracic surgery at St. Elizabeth. “This award reflects a tremendous partnership between nurses, physicians and all involved in the care of the cardiac surgical patient,” says Dr. Hunter. Thomson Healthcare scored facilities in eight key performance areas: risk-adjusted medical mortality, risk-adjusted surgical mortality, risk-adjusted complications, core measures score, percentage of heart bypass patients with internal mammary artery use, procedure volume, severity adjusted average length of stay, and wage- and severity-adjusted average cost. Hospitals cannot apply for or pay for the Thomson 100 Top Hospital award. ‘I’m not surprised with the Thomson results, but I am very pleased,” says Wahoub Hout, M.D., cardiology section chief at St. Elizabeth. “It is a reflection of the high quality of care our hospital provides. Our dedicated team of cardiologists, cardiovascular surgeons, cardiac anesthesiologists, nurses and radiological technologists work very hard to provide the best possible care for our patients,” says Dr. Hout. “We as a team at St. Elizabeth Health Center continue to review and scrutinize our data and the outcomes and will continue to do everything possible to provide the highest quality of care to our patients,” says Dr. Hout. Cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of death in the United States and the successful outcome of a procedure or treatment can mean the difference between life and death. It’s important that the public is informed about the cardiovascular procedures, institutions and outcomes available in their community. St. Elizabeth offers the area’s most advanced cardiac surgery suites, inpatient cardiac care units and comprehesive cardiac rehabiliation programs. In addition, St. Elizabeth provides state-of–the-art cardiovascular care including advanced cardiac catheterization and electrophysiology labs, non-invasive diagnostic services and congestive heart failure clinic services.
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