HCA Florida Ocala Hospital earns top cardiology award
Ocala, Fla. — HCA Florida Ocala Hospital has earned a distinguished three — star rating from The Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) for its patient care and outcomes in isolated coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) procedures as well as a new three — star designation for multiprocedural surgeries.
The three — star rating, which denotes the highest category of quality, places HCA Florida Ocala Hospital among the elite hospitals for heart bypass surgery in the United States and Canada.
“Once again, HCA Florida Ocala Hospital achieved the highest rating in heart surgery when compared to other cardiac programs across America,” said Bryan Bush, M.D., cardiothoracic surgeon at HCA Florida Ocala Hospital. “This rating reflects our team's dedication to putting patients and their safety first. We achieve excellent outcomes in some of the most complex heart surgery procedures, such as redo operations, multiple valve operations, mitral valve repair, and aortic root surgery. This additional three — star rating for multiprocedural surgeries assures our patients and our community that we are skilled in handling intricate heart procedures and committed to excellence in outcomes for them and their families.”
The STS rating system is a highly regarded overall measure of quality in healthcare, rating the benchmarked outcomes of cardiothoracic surgery programs across the United States and Canada. The star rating is calculated using a combination of quality measures for specific procedures performed by an STS Adult Cardiac Surgery Database participant.
This is the fourth consecutive year that the STS has awarded its prestigious three — star rating to HCA Florida Ocala Hospital for isolated CABG procedures. The second three — star rating for multiprocedural composite measures is a new category that reflects performance in a combination of overall cardiac procedures, including valves and coronary bypass surgeries.
“The Society of Thoracic Surgeons congratulates STS National Database participants who have received three — star ratings,” said David M. Shahian, M.D., chairman of the STS Task Force on Quality Measurement. “Participation in the Database and public reporting demonstrates a commitment to quality improvement in health care delivery and helps provide patients and their families with meaningful information to help them make informed decisions about health care.”
The STS National Database was established in 1989 as an initiative for quality improvement and patient safety among cardiothoracic surgeons. The Database includes four components: the Adult Cardiac Surgery Database (ACSD), the Congenital Heart Surgery Database (CHSD), the General Thoracic Surgery Database (GTSD), and the mechanical circulatory support database (Intermacs).
The STS ACSD houses approximately 6.9 million surgical records and gathers information from more than 3,800 participating physicians, including surgeons and anesthesiologists from more than 90% of groups that perform heart surgery in the U.S. STS public reporting online enables STS ACSD participants to voluntarily report to each other and the public their heart surgery scores and star ratings.