Marin General Records Superior Cardiac Surgery Outcomes
The Society of Thoracic Surgeons’ recently released nationwide survey showed that Marin General Hospital’s cardiac surgical outcomes have been excellent over the past several years.
“We were gratified to find that a cardiac patient being operated on at MGH in 2004 or 2005 probably had about half the chance of a negative outcome as a patient who had the same operation at other hospitals across the country, even after correcting for risk,” said Dr. Joel Sklar, the hospital’s Cardiology Division Chief.
Deaths following surgery were far fewer at MGH than the nationally observed rate. MGH experienced only 51 percent of the expected mortality rate (taking pre-operative risk factors such as age and other diseases into account) in 2004 and 54 percent of the expected mortality rate in 2005. Major complications from cardiac surgery, such as infections, were also less common at MGH – only 7.8 percent compared to 14.6 percent at similar hospitals and 14.5 percent at all hospitals surveyed.
Over 600 hospitals across the nation voluntarily contributed data from over 200,000 patients.
“Beyond the good results, we were more likely nationwide to do beating heart surgery (which avoids using the heart-lung machine) which probably reduces the chance of lung or brain complications and may shorten the hospital stay,” said Sklar. “We’re proud of our surgeons and our post-operative team.”
Cardiac surgeons Dr. Soon Park and Dr. Robert Ellis perform surgery at Marin General Hospital as well as at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco, as part of the Sutter Pacific Heart Centers’ Cardiovascular Program.
October 17, 2006