Also Ranked Top 10% in Massachusetts and Nationally for Overall Surgical and Trauma Care

St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center, a part of the Steward Health Care System (Steward), earned top honors in Massachusetts for interventional coronary care from CareChex, an independent hospital quality ratings organization that provides a composite evaluation of all components of medical quality, including process of care, outcomes of care, and patient experiences. CareChex also ranked St. Elizabeth’s overall surgical and trauma care among the top 10 percent in Massachusetts and across the country.

“CareChex^® allows the public to make informed decisions regarding the quality of medical care provided by hospitals,” said Dr. Thane Forthman, president and CEO of Care Chex^®, a division of Comparion. “We are pleased to acknowledge that St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center has achieved an exceptionally high level of performance across all components of medical quality. St. Elizabeth’s performance is a benchmark that other hospitals should seek to emulate.”

The medical excellence award is a testament to the community care model at Steward, which coordinates patient care among primary care physicians, specialists and other health care providers. Steward provides high quality care close to where our patients live and then refer them to specialists, such as the interventional cardiology team at St. Elizabeth’s, when needed. For patients, this means that their medical records are shared, their doctors are talking to each other, unnecessary duplication of tests can be avoided, and their care is seamlessly integrated to meet their needs.

Interventional cardiology uses non-surgical methods to treat heart conditions. Catheter-based procedures are utilized (using small tubes inserted into the arteries and guided to the heart) to open blocked arteries and improve blood flow to the heart. Interventional cardiology procedures allow physicians to treat a variety of complex cardiovascular disorders with less-invasive procedures, which improve clinical outcomes, reduce hospitalization time, and allow patients to return to productive lifestyles sooner.

At St. Elizabeth’s, Dr. Joseph Carrozza, chief of Cardiovascular Medicine, and Dr. Lawrence Garcia, chief of Interventional Cardiology, lead a team of exceptional interventional attending physicians, affiliated interventional cardiologists, nurses, technologists and support staff. In recent years, St. Elizabeth’s has made significant investments to enhance delivery of advanced interventional services including building a new multimodality interventional suite and investing in the Corindus Vascular robot.

“The interventional cardiology team at St. Elizabeth’s is committed to working with each patient and their family to provide an exceptional experience, and most importantly, optimal outcomes,” said Carrozza. “Leveraging advanced technology including the Corindus Vascular robot, and participation in state-of-the-art clinical research, the entire team is able to deliver care that is among the best in the country.  The relentless focus on continuous quality improvement demands that we constantly strive to do better.”

At St. Elizabeth’s, a new $25 million state-of-the-art ICU opened last month to better care for the most critically ill patients. This follows a number of other significant projects to improve care, including a new emergency department, radiation oncology suite and hematology/oncology outpatient center.

“We are incredibly proud of this medical excellence award. St. Elizabeth’s has distinguished itself as a top-rated hospital nationally for cardiac and cardiovascular care, as well as the fastest growing surgical program in the region by maintaining a relentless focus on quality, recruiting world renowned physicians to join our medical staff and making significant financial investments to improve our facilities,” said Kevin Hannifan,president of St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center.

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About St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center
St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center is a major academic medical center affiliated with Tufts University School of Medicine.  Areas of medical excellence include cardiology, cardiac surgery, neurosciences, general and robotic surgery, bariatric surgery, women’s health, high-risk obstetrics, bone and joint health, hematology/oncology, pulmonary medicine and emergency medicine.  St. Elizabeth’s is a member of Steward Health Care System LLC  (Steward), the largest fully integrated community care organization and community hospital network in New England. Headquartered in Boston, Steward is the third largest employer in MA with more than 17,000 employees serving more than one million patients annually in more than 150 communities. Further information is available at steward.org/St-Elizabeths.

About CareChex
CareChex is a division of Comparion® Medical Analytics – one of the nation’s largest privately-held health care information service companies. CareChex provides clinical, financial, and patient satisfaction findings to consumers, providers, and purchasers of U.S. medical care. Unlike other publicly available hospital quality ratings, CareChex provides a composite evaluation of all components of medical quality including process of care, outcomes of care and patient experience.