HOUSTON, Dec. 5, 2006 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- For the second year in a row, the Memorial Hermann Heart & Vascular Institute-Texas Medical Center is Houston's only healthcare facility named one of the nation's 100 top cardiovascular hospitals.
The designation was awarded through the 2006 Solucient(r) 100 Top Hospitals: Cardiovascular Benchmarks for Success study. Solucient, which maintains the country's largest healthcare database, compiles the list by objectively measuring performance on key criteria at the nation's top acute-care hospitals. The company studies data regarding medical records, core treatment measures and cost as reported to Medicare, and it gathers information on medical residency programs from the American Medical Association and American Osteopathic Association.
"We are proud to be recognized as one of the country's leading heart hospitals in a comparison that is based on stringent criteria and quantifiable results," said Erin Asprec, chief executive officer of Memorial Hermann Heart & Vascular Institute-TMC. "This award highlights the world-class care that our physicians and staff will bring to our state-of-the-art heart hospital when it opens in 2008."
Currently, the institute is housed within Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center, but an eight story, 240,000-square-foot hospital dedicated to cardiovascular care is being built at the corner of MacGregor and Fannin streets. The $92 million facility will house 147 patient rooms and six cardiac catheterization and electrophysiology labs with room to expand. Its six operating rooms will include two endovascular suites that enable minimally invasive and open procedures in the same room.
Memorial Hermann Heart & Vascular Institute-TMC was among 30 teaching hospitals with cardiovascular residency programs to be recognized. It is the primary teaching hospital for The University of Texas Medical School at Houston.
To determine the Top 100 cardiovascular hospitals, Solucient compared mortality and infection rates for heart surgery and cardiac catheterization as well as procedure volume, length of stay, cost and use of core treatment measures such as providing patients with aspirin and other medications upon admission and discharge. The study found:
* If hospitals that didn't receive the award provided the same
quality of cardiovascular care as the 100 Top Hospitals
facilities, survival rates could increase by more than 8,000
patients each year.
* Complications of care could also decrease by approximately 575
patients a year.
* Both medical and surgical cardiovascular patients experience
markedly higher survival rates at winning hospitals, which had
21 percent fewer deaths than expected for coronary artery bypass
graft patients.
* Winning hospitals performed up to 80 percent more percutaneous
coronary interventions in their cardiac catheterization labs
than their peers and about 50 percent more coronary artery
bypass surgeries. Previous research has shown that procedure
volume is a critical factor in outcomes for cardiovascular
patients.
* Benchmark hospitals are proving more efficient in treating
cardiovascular patients. The average 100 Top Hospitals
Cardiovascular winner discharges patients half a day earlier
and at an average cost that is about 13 percent less than its
peers.
About the Memorial Hermann System
An integrated health system, Memorial Hermann is known for world-class clinical expertise, patient-centered care, leading edge technology, and innovation. The system, with its exceptional medical staff and 17,000 employees, serves southeast Texas and the greater Houston community. Memorial Hermann's 14 hospitals include three hospitals in the Texas Medical Center and 10 suburban hospitals. The system also operates numerous imaging, sports medicine and rehabilitation, and surgery centers, a Wellness Center, a chemical dependency treatment center, a home health agency, a retirement community and a nursing home. To learn more, visit www.memorialhermann.org or call 713-222-CARE.
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About Solucient(r)
As the nation's leading source of information products for the healthcare industry, Solucient provides tools and vital insights that healthcare managers use to improve the performance of their organizations. Solucient is a Thomson healthcare business. For more information about the 100 Top Hospitals, visit www.100tophospitals.com.