In its first-time rating of hospitals for heart surgery, Consumer Reports finds top-rated hospitals in surprising places and a wide variety in performance – even at neighboring hospitals in the same geographic area.
The ratings, which look at heart bypass surgery and aortic valve replacement surgery, cover more than 400 hospitals nationwide.
“It’s extremely difficult for consumers to find out which hospitals and surgeons have the best result with their specific heart procedure,” said John Santa, M.D., medical director of Consumer Reports Health. “But it shouldn’t be so hard.
Hospitals and doctors should make their information accessible and understandable, so families can make informed choices when they make life and death decisions, Santa said.
Many of the top-rated hospitals aren’t well known, he said.
Of the more than 400 hospitals that make their data available to Consumer Reports, only 15 earned top scores in both heart-valve and bypass surgery. Although the well-known Cleveland Clinic made the list, so did some less familiar hospitals, such as Borgess Medical Center in Kalamazoo, Mich., and Mother Frances Hospital-Tyler in Tyler, Texas. Some are major medical centers, while others are smaller.
Of the hospitals that shared their bypass data with Consumer Reports, 20 percent were above average, 75 percent were average, and 4 percent were below average. Of the 247 hospitals with data on valve surgery, 10 percent received a top score, 87 percent a middle score, and 2 percent the lowest one.
On performance, Consumer Reports found four metropolitan areas – Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Oklahoma City, and Portland, Ore. – where there are top- and low-scoring hospitals, sometimes just miles apart.
The information in the heart surgery ratings comes from the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, which represents physicians who operate on the heart and other organs in the chest. More than 1,000 U.S. hospitals report to the society, but only about 400 allowed the society to share the data with Consumer Reports.
Some famous hospitals are missing from the Ratings because they refused to share data, Santa said. Examples include Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and Columbia-Presbyterian and Weill Cornell in New York City.
The ratings for aortic valve replacement and coronary artery bypass graft surgery, an operation to treat blocked coronary arteries, are base on: data from patients’ medical records showing whether patients survived the procedure and how they fared on other important measures, including complications.
The data was adjusted for the health of patients because some hospitals treat more older, sicker patients than others.
The 15 hospitals that earned a top score in both bypass and valve replacement surgery are:
- Baystate Medical Center, Springfield, Mass.
- Borgess Medical Center, Kalamazoo, Mich.
- Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland
- Kaiser Permanente Sunnyside Medical Center, Clackamas, Ore.
- Kaleida Health (Gates Vascular Institute at Buffalo General Medical Center), Buffalo, N.Y.
- Mother Frances Hospital-Tyler, Tyler, Texas
- Sequoia Hospital, Redwood City, Calif.
- Spectrum Health-Grand Rapids (Meijer Heart Center), Grand Rapids, Mich.
- St. Joseph Mercy Hospital, Ypsilanti, Mich.
- St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center, Syracuse, N.Y.
- St. Vincent Heart Center of Indiana, Indianapolis
- Swedish Medical Center-Cherry Hill Campus, Seattle
- The Heart Hospital Baylor Plano, Plano, Texas
- UMass Memorial Medical Center, Worcester, Mass.
- Valley Hospital, Ridgewood, N.J.
For hospital ratings, including ratings by hospital for survival and surgical complications, subscribers can visit: ConsumerReports.org/hospitalratings. For details on the methodology used in the ratings, go to ConsumerReports.org/cro/howweratehospitals.
The ratings report also can be found in the August issue of Consumer Reports, available on newsstands and in libraries..
Tips to find a heart hospital
Consumer Reports offers six tips to help find a heart hospital:
- Ask your doctor how serious your condition is and how soon you’ll need surgery. Chances are you will have time to research hospitals unless it’s an emergency.
- Because only about 400 hospitals allowed Consumer Reports to publish their data, there’s a good chance your local hospital isn’t included in these ratings. If so, almost every hospital reports their data to the society even if it’s not public and some give similar data to state registries, so you can ask your surgeon about your local hospital’s survival and complication rates. If he or she can't – or won't – share it, consider looking elsewhere.
- Don’t panic if there’re no top-rated hospitals in your community. A hospital that gets an average rating still provides good care. If you decide to travel elsewhere for your procedure, you need to make sure your health insurance will cover an out-of-town facility. Know you probably won’t have as much immediate support from family and friends.
- If your insurance won’t cover the heart hospital you choose because managed care plans – including Medicare Advantage – require providers be in-network, see if your surgeon feels the procedure could be postponed until you switch plans. You may be able to change plans during the annual fall open enrollment period; in addition, almost all hospitals accept original Medicare. Otherwise you may have to pay most of the cost yourself if you’re in managed care and your hospital is considered out-of-network.
- You don’t need to go to a famous hospital in a large city. Consumer Reports found top hospitals in bypass and valve surgery in out-of-the-way places and high scoring hospitals in either procedure are in all areas of the country.
- It can be difficult to find information about a specific heart surgeon. A few state health departments maintain surgeon registries. But you’ll probably need to ask your surgeon for the information you want. If he or she won't tell you, consider going elsewhere.
