Milwaukee, Wis. – Reinforcing its position as a heart health destination, the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) has awarded Aurora St. Luke’s Medical Center its highest possible rating, demonstrating high-quality outcomes for heart procedures.
Aurora St. Luke’s Medical Center received a three-star rating in 2015 for the three most common heart surgeries in the United States: coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG); aortic valve replacement surgery (AVR); and combinations of both procedures (AVR+CABG). According to data from the 2015 report, only 1.17 percent of all heart centers in the nation received three stars in all categories.
“To be recognized with a three-star rating from the Society of Thoracic Surgeons is a testament to the level of experience and overall focus on quality from the entire heart and vascular team at Aurora St. Luke’s,” said Dr. David Kress, chief of cardiothoracic surgery at Aurora St. Luke’s Medical Center and Aurora’s Cardiac Quality physician champion. “The rating reinforces to our patients and their families that when they choose Aurora St. Luke’s for their heart-health needs, they’re getting the best possible care.”
The three-star rating system draws on STS’s extensive database that includes more than four million surgical records and covers roughly 90 percent of the more than 1,100 surgical groups in the U.S. that perform cardiac surgeries. The rating system is designed to show how well surgical groups perform in terms of patient survival rates, the absence of complications, and other key metrics.
The accomplishment is especially significant given Aurora St. Luke’s high volume of these procedures. In 2015, the hospital performed more than 900 of these types of surgeries. Volume provides more experience, and the more experienced medical centers like Aurora St. Luke’s also often times receive the most challenging and higher-risk patients, making positive outcomes all the more difficult to achieve.
Aurora St. Luke’s Medical Center has been a leader in heart health since the 1960s. The team of experts has pioneered a number of firsts, including:
- The largest and most experienced Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR) program in Wisconsin, performing more than 700 cases with a 100 percent implementation rate.
- The first health care system in world to use new 4D cardiovascular ultrasound technology from GE Healthcare, helping to see the heart like never before.
- The first health care system in Wisconsin to implant a minimally-invasive leadless pacemaker, offering faster recovery time for patients.
- The first heart transplant in Wisconsin in 1968, and since 1982, more than 800 total transplants, more than any other health care system in the state.
- A leader in Ventricular Assistant Devices (VAD)s installation in patients with Advanced Heart Failure, having installed more than 700 VADs since 1995.
- The first atrial defibrillator implant in the U.S., the first catheter ablation in Wisconsin and the first Epicardial Catheter Ablation of AFib in America.
- The first device implant in Wisconsin to prevent strokes in patients with atrial fibrillation.
- The first and only hospital in Wisconsin and one of only a few in the nation to offer a hybrid-ablation technique to treat patients with atrial fibrillation, which has proven to provide fewer bleeds, fewer strokes and fewer cases of heart failure following the procedure versus catheter ablation