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The Heart Center of DRMC named to 100 Top Hospitals
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
DUBOIS - The Heart Center of DuBois Regional Medical Center expanded in April 2001 to include interventional catheterization and open-heart surgical procedures, more commonly found in big-city hospitals.
Throughout the years, local cardiologists and cardiovascular surgeons have performed thousands of procedures in a local, hometown setting at The Heart Center. Patients have come from nearby communities throughout Clearfield, Jefferson and Elk counties, as well as approximately eight additional counties in the region to receive top-quality care at The Heart Center.
Now, The Heart Center is being recognized on a national level.
Thomson Reuters, a health care research and measurement company from Ann Arbor, Mich., released its annual study on Monday identifying the 100 U.S. hospitals that set the nation's benchmarks for inpatient cardiovascular services.
The study - 100 Top Hospitals: Cardiovascular Benchmarks - examined the performance of 971 hospitals by analyzing outcomes for patients with heart failure and heart attacks and for those who received coronary bypass surgery or percutaneous cardiovascular interventions (PCI) such as angioplasties.
"I'm extremely proud today, knowing that our physicians, nurses, all health care providers in The Heart Center and everyone at DRMC has worked very hard to achieve this honor for our hospital and for our patients," DRMC President Raymond Graeca said. "Being a community hospital doesn't have to mean that you can't do advanced procedures and keep pace with the larger hospitals. In fact, many of our patients would say that we even do things better than the larger hospitals because our caring and compassionate staff treats every patient like their family and friends."
The Heart Center of DRMC is the only community hospital from Pennsylvania to make the 2009 list. Five other larger Pennsylvania hospitals were also recognized.
The 100 Top Hospitals program is nothing new to DRMC. It is a five-time winner of the 100 Top Hospitals: National Benchmarks of Success, an award that list the top overall hospitals in the country. DRMC received this honor in 1993, 2001, 2004 and 2006.
The Heart Center has also been recognized many times by the American Heart Association for outstanding cardiac care, as well annually receiving the Blue Distinction for Cardiac Care recognition from Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield.
"We don't do what we do to receive awards," cardiovascular and thoracic surgeon Norman "Chip" Hetzler Jr. said. "We work hard and maintain excellence in quality and service for our patients. Because we live in DuBois, our patients are our friends and neighbors. The awards just show my colleagues and our staff that we are doing very good things at The Heart Center for the entire region."
Throughout the years, volumes have increased and cardiologists now perform nearly 2,700 cases annually in DRMC's cardiac cath labs while cardiovascular surgeons do several hundred procedures in DRMC's cardiovascular operating rooms.
"Cardiovascular disease is still the number one killer in the United States so we look for the hospitals that provide the best care," said Jean Chenoweth, senior vice president for performance improvement and 100 Top Hospitals programs of Thomson Reuters. "These hospitals set the national standard for cardiovascular disease outcomes, process of care, efficiency, and lower costs. They deliver significant value to their communities."
The study, in its 11th year, found that 100 Top Hospitals cardiovascular winners have:
•17 percent lower mortality rates for heart attack patients.
•10 percent lower mortality rates for heart failure patients.
•27 percent lower mortality rates for bypass surgery patients.
•22 percent lower mortality rates for PCI.
•fewer post-operative complications - 99 percent of patients were complication-free.
•close to 12 percent shorter average hospital stay.
•12 percent lower cost per case.
Cardiac services at DRMC started in 1993 with a small diagnostic cardiac catheterization lab. Cardiologists Scott Reese and Jay Ambrose were among the first to help build the program.
"I remember saying to a visitor at the open house of The Heart Center in 2001 that it was the fear of placing my patients in a helicopter on a stormy winter night that was my biggest apprehension of having a diagnostic heart program in a small town," Reese said. "Back then the closest surgical program was in Pittsburgh. Now when one of my patients needs heart surgery we are able to call Dr. Hetzler or Dr. (Stephen) Fall and in minutes, that patient is having life-saving surgery right here."
The goal of The Heart Center has always been to provide advanced cardiac services close to home, according to Dr. Gary DuGan, vice president of medical affairs at DRMC. Its cardiologists, cardiovascular surgeons, cardiovascular anesthesiologists and the entire support staff at DRMC strive to make this advanced care the highest quality care in the region, the state and the country.
"As we see more patients coming from surrounding communities like St. Marys, Punxsutawney, Clearfield and beyond, we hear that they are choosing us because it's easier to get to our hospital, more convenient because it's closer to their homes and more comfortable because they are able to send their families home at night and not worry about overnight accommodations," DuGan said. "It is assuring to know that the quality that they receive at The Heart Center is as good, if not better, than the quality they would receive at a larger facility in the city."
The 100 Top Hospitals study focused on short-term, acute care, non-federal U.S. hospitals that treat a broad spectrum of cardiology patients. Thomson Reuters researchers analyzed 2007 and 2008 Medicare Provider Analysis and Review data, 2008 Medicare cost reports, and data from other sources.
They scored hospitals in key performance areas: risk-adjusted medical mortality, risk-adjusted surgical mortality, risk-adjusted complications, core measures score, percentage of coronary bypass patients with internal mammary artery use, procedure volume, severity-adjusted average length of stay, and wage- and severity-adjusted average cost.
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