Good Samaritan Hospital's Cardiac Surgery Program is Rated Best in Region for Second Straight Year

SUFFERN, N.Y., Dec. 6, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- For the second straight year, the best rated cardiac surgery program in the New York-White Plains-Wayne, N.Y.-N.J. region is at the Active International Cardiovascular Institute at Good Samaritan Hospital, according to HealthGrades®, the leading healthcare ratings company.

HealthGrades scores, an impartial and highly credible measuring stick, place the Active International Cardiovascular Institute at Good Samaritan Hospital as the top rated cardiac surgical program in the region – and number two in all of New York State.

Also for the second year in a row, the Institute was ranked among the top five percent of all hospitals in the country for cardiac surgery.

HealthGrades identifies Good Samaritan's analysis "region" – the New York-White Plains-Wayne, N.Y.-N.J. Metropolitan Division – as a metropolitan statistical area defined by the federal government's Office of Management and Budget.

5-Star Rating for Third Straight Year

The Institute achieved the highest ranking available – 5-Star – which means that "actual performance is statistically significantly better than expected."  This is the third year in a row that the Institute received the HealthGrades Cardiac Surgery Excellence Award™.

This position and these high quality scores are substantiated by quality rankings of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, which also gave the Institute its highest rating.

These recognitions are based on HealthGrades' 13th annual Hospital Quality in America study, which analyzes patient outcomes at virtually all of the nation's hospitals.

Good Samaritan Hospital has achieved the following specific ratings from HealthGrades:

• Recipient of the HealthGrades Cardiac Surgery Excellence Award™, three years in a row (2009-2011)
• Ranked among the Top 5% in the Nation for Cardiac Surgery, two years in a row (2010-2011)
• Ranked among the Top 10% in the Nation for Cardiac Surgery, three years in a row (2009-2011)
• Ranked among the Top 5 or 10 in State for Cardiac Surgery, three years in a row (2009-2011, ranked second in 2011)
• Five-Star Rated for Cardiac Surgery, two years in a row (2010-2011)
• Five-Star Rated for Coronary Bypass Surgery, three years in a row (2009-2011)
• Five-Star Rated for Valve Replacement Surgery, two years in a row (2010-2011)

The Active International Cardiovascular Institute at Good Samaritan Hospital took in its first patient in January 2007, after a lengthy battle to earn the right to serve the Lower Hudson Valley community with a state-of-the-art cardiac center.

"Good Samaritan Hospital has consistently ranked as the top cardiac surgery center in the region.  There is no better facility for cardiac patient treatment in the area – period – including New York City," said Philip Patterson, CEO of Bon Secours Charity Health System (BSCHS), the parent organization of Good Samaritan Hospital.  "Our ability to successfully build this cardiac program from the ground up in less than four years is a tribute to our fantastic physicians, medical professionals, and staff."

"Our focus on the cardiac patient and their entire range of needs – physically and mentally – demonstrates the unmatched level of care that the Institute provides," said Chief of Cardiac Surgery Edward Lundy, M.D., Ph.D.  "The ongoing recognition of our success proves that we are excelling in patient outcomes, ranging from the very complicated to the more routine."

The HealthGrades study, the largest annual report of its kind, analyzed patient outcomes in nearly 40 million Medicare hospitalization records from 5,000 hospitals over the years 2006, 2007 and 2008.  This year's study found large gaps persist between the "best" and the "worst" hospitals:

• Patients had a 72 percent lower chance of dying at 5-Star rated hospitals compared to 1-Star rated hospitals, and a 53 percent lower chance of dying in a 5-Star rated hospital compared with the national average.
• If all hospitals performed at the level of a 5-Star hospital across the 17 procedures and diagnoses studied, 232,442 Medicare lives could potentially have been saved from 2007 through 2009.

HealthGrades Ratings

HealthGrades' hospital ratings and awards reflect the track record of patient outcomes at hospitals in the form of mortality and complication rates.  HealthGrades rates hospitals independently based on data that hospitals submit to the federal government.  No hospital can opt in or out of being rated, and no hospital pays to be rated.

For 28 procedures and treatments, HealthGrades issues star ratings that reflect the mortality and complication rates for each category of care.  Hospitals receiving a 5-star rating have mortality or complication rates that are below the national average, to a statistically significant degree.  A 3-star rating means the hospital performs as expected.  One-star ratings indicate the hospital's mortality or complication rates in that procedure or treatment are statistically higher than average.  Because the risk profiles of patient populations at hospitals are not alike, HealthGrades risk-adjusts the data to allow for apples-to-apples comparisons.

More information on the 2011 HealthGrades study, including the complete methodology, can be found at www.healthgrades.com.

About Bon Secours Charity Health System

Bon Secours Charity Health System serves over half a million people in communities within New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey and is comprised of three acute care hospitals located in the Hudson-Delaware Valley of New York: St. Anthony Community Hospital in Warwick, Bon Secours Community Hospital in Port Jervis and Good Samaritan Hospital in Suffern, as well as Good Samaritan Home Care, two long-term care facilities, an assisted living and adult home facility and several other medical programs.  The Bon Secours Charity Health System provides the region's only open heart surgery program; Level II Neonatal Intensive Care Unit; advanced cancer, stroke and vascular therapies; and the widest array of health and wellness programs in the region.  It has been recognized nationally for superior patient outcomes, patient satisfaction and as the place to practice for physicians throughout the area.  For further information visit our Web site at: www.bschs.org.

SOURCE Bon Secours Charity Health System