News

November 5, 2015

St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center Recognized as Healthgrades America’s 100 Best Hospitals in the Nation for Cardiac Care for Fourth Straight Year

Medical Center also receives top honors for Coronary Intervention and Overall Cardiac Care 

BRIGHTON, MA – St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center today announced that it has been recognized by Healthgrades as one of America’s 100 Best™ hospitals for Cardiac care, the fourth straight year the institution has received this distinction. The medical center was also recognized as a “Five-Star” institution for valve surgery, coronary interventional procedures, treatment of heart attack and treatment of heart failure.

Healthgrades, the leading online resource helping consumers make informed decisions in order to find the right doctor, the right hospital, and the right care, evaluated nearly 4,500 hospitals nationwide for 33 of the most common inpatient procedures and conditions and identified the 100 best-performing hospitals across all conditions or procedures within this service line.

These achievements are part of findings released online and in the Healthgrades 2016 Report to the Nation. The new report demonstrates how clinical performance continues to differ dramatically between hospitals both nationally and regionally. This variation in care may have a significant impact on health outcomes. For example, from 2012 through 2014, if all hospitals as a group, performed similarly to hospitals receiving 5 stars as a group, on average 222,392 lives could potentially have been saved and 166,086 complications could potentially have been avoided.* A 5-star rating indicates that St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center’s clinical outcomes are statistically significantly better than expected when treating the condition or conducting the procedure being evaluated.

“These outstanding ratings from Healthgrades for the care we deliver to our cardiac patients is reflective of the caliber of our staff and the expertise they provide day in and day out,” said Dr. Arvind Agnihotri, Chief of Cardiac Surgery at St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center. “The medical center has made providing the highest quality care to our patients a top priority and through these endeavors we are able to deliver care that rivals, and in some cases, outperforms, other academic institutions in Boston.”

The medical center earlier this year opened a new $10 million operating suite comprised of two cardiac ORs, which brings the hospital’s total to 13 ORs, and provides St. Elizabeth’s cardiac surgeons with a spacious, modern facility. Each operating room is 720-square-feet and the suite was built in existing space that used to house the hospital’s post-anesthesia recovery unit. The medical center has also renovated its former pre-operative patient waiting area to create a new 7,400-square-foot, 14-bay post-anesthesia recovery unit that will give patients more privacy and comfort as they begin their recoveries. St. Elizabeth’s also opened a new $32 million 28-bed Intensive Care Unit, the most modern in Boston, in December of 2014.

In the past year, St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center also added two top surgeons to the Center for Advanced Cardiac Surgery. Ara Ketchedjian, MD, is board certified by the American Board of Surgery in General Surgery and the American Board of Thoracic Surgery. He has a special clinical interest in minimally invasive cardiac surgery, valvular heart disease and tissue engineering. He previously was an assistant professor of surgery at Boston University School of Medicine and worked for eight years at Boston Medical Center. Stanley Tam, MD, MBA, specializes in minimally invasive treatment of cardiovascular diseases, valve repair and replacement, coronary artery revascularization, atrial fibrillation, disease of the thoracic aorta and congestive heart failure. He came to St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center after serving as the chief of Cardiac Surgery at University of Massachusetts Medical Center in Worcester.

The medical center this week will debut a newly renovated electrophysiology laboratory that underwent a $1 million upgrade to provide patients with the most modern amenities while undergoing their procedures including insertion of pacemakers, cardiac defibrillators and treating patients with a variety of cardiac conditions, including atrial fibrillation.

St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center was also recognized by Healthgrades with the following:

  • Recipient of the Healthgrades Cardiac Care Excellence Award™ for 4 Years in a Row (2013-2016)
  • Recipient of the Healthgrades Coronary Intervention Excellence Award™ for 4 Years in a Row (2013-2016)
  • Named Among the Top 10% in the Nation for Overall Cardiac Services for 4 Years in a Row (2013-2016)
  • Named Among the Top 10% in the Nation for Cardiology Services for 4 Years in a Row (2013-2016)
  • Named Among the Top 10% in the Nation for Coronary Interventional Procedures for 4 Years in a Row (2013-2016)
  • Five-Star Recipient for Valve Surgery in 2016
  • Five-Star Recipient for Coronary Interventional Procedures for 4 Years in a Row (2013-2016)
  • Five-Star Recipient for Treatment of Heart Attack for 2 Years in a Row (2015-2016)
  • Five-Star Recipient for Treatment of Heart Failure for 6 Years in a Row (2011-2016)

A 5-star rating indicates that St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center’s clinical outcomes are statistically significantly better than expected when treating the condition or conducting the procedure being evaluated. For its analysis, Healthgrades evaluated approximately 40 million Medicare inpatient records for nearly 4,500 short-term acute care hospitals nationwide, and assessed hospital performance relative to each of 33 common conditions and procedures. Healthgrades recognizes a hospital’s quality achievements for cohort-specific performance, specialty area performance, and overall clinical quality. Individual procedure or condition cohorts are designated as 5 star (statistically significantly better than expected), 3 star (not statistically different from expected), and 1 star (statistically significantly worse than expected) categories. The complete Healthgrades 2016 Report to the Nation with detailed cohort-specific outcomes data, hospital-specific quality achievements, and detailed study methodology, can be found at www.healthgrades.com/quality.

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 vascular and endovascular surgery, cardiology, 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, which is the second largest health care system in New England. Visit St. Elizabeth’s online at www.semc.org.

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*Statistics are based on Healthgrades analysis of MedPAR data for years 2012 through 2014 and represent 3-year estimates for Medicare patients only.