100 Hospitals With Great Heart Programs - Part 3

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100 Hospitals With Great Heart Programs
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Sarasota (Fla.) Memorial Hospital. Sarasota Memorial Hospital offers more than 20 cardiovascular specialties. Heart failure readmission rates at the hospital are the lowest in Florida and among the lowest in the nation. Sarasota Memorial Hospital's nurses are Magnet-accredited and the hospital was named to Thomson Reuters' 100 Top Hospitals in 2012.

Saint Vincent Hospital (Worcester, Mass.). Physicians at Saint Vincent Hospital's Center for Heart & Vascular Services performed the first open-heart surgery in Worcester in 1959, and the hospital continues to garner cardiac care achievements today. The center offers an electrophysiology lab, a vascular lab and cardiac surgery and rehab. Along with clinical care, Saint Vincent physicians have made significant contributions to their field. Robert Bojar, MD, the director of cardiac surgery, authored the acclaimed book, Manual of Perioperative Care in Adult Cardiac Surgery.

Scripps La Jolla Hospitals and Clinics (San Diego, Calif.). Scripps La Jolla Hospitals and Clinics offers a range of cardiology care services. The hospital performs about 6,000 heart catheterizations every year. Scripps Health is currently constructing a new cardiovascular facility on the Scripps La Jolla campus. The Prebys Cardiovascular Institute, which is expected to open in 2015, will include 168 inpatient beds and a center for graduate medical education for physicians, among other additions.

Sentara Norfolk (Va.) General Hospital. Sentara Heart Hospital has advanced centers for arrhythmia, heart valve and structural disease and thoracic surgery. It is the first and only dedicated heart hospital in Norfolk's local region. Sentara Norfolk General's valve and arrhythmia centers offer program managers who strengthen the care continuum by guiding patients through the referral and screening process.

Shands at the University of Florida (Gainesville). Heart care experts at Shands at the University of Florida care for adults and children with a variety of heart and vascular problems. The hospital is a tertiary care center, allowing the team of cardiovascular and thoracic surgeons to treat the most complex problems with advanced skills and technology. In January 2012, Shands physicians were approved to offer a new treatment technique, called transcatheter aortic valve replacement, which improves blood flow by using an artificial valve to take over the work of a deceased aortic valve.

St. Francis Hospital (Roslyn, N.Y.). St. Francis Hospital is New York's only specialty designated cardiac care center. It offers heart surgery, cardiac catheterization, angioplasty and the diagnosis and treatment of heart arrhythmias. In the past 10 years, the St. Francis physicians have performed more than 98,000 cardiac catheterizations. The hospital has consistently had the largest cardiac surgical volume in the state since 1992. St. Francis also operates a mobile outreach clinic dedicated to serving patients who do not have access to care for heart disease.

St. Helena Hospital (Deer Park, Calif.). The Heart & Vascular Center at St. Helena Hospital was the first in the North Bay area to perform coronary angiogram, coronary angioplasty and coronary bypass surgery. It was also the first in the area to offer minimally invasive cardiac bypass surgery and percutaneous thoracic aortic aneurysm repair. St. Helena Hospital is one of few hospitals in the region with the rapid-response care team and specialized technology required to respond to the most serious form of heart attack, an ST elevation myocardial infarction.

St. John's Hospital (Springfield, Ill.). Prairie Heart Institute at St. John's Hospital is the largest heart program in Illinois and performs more cardiovascular procedures than any other hospital in the state, according to the hospital. The institute's physicians conduct research at the Prairie Education and Research Cooperative. In addition to its location in St. John's Hospital, the Prairie Heart Institute also has an off-campus diagnostic center with a hotel-like atmosphere that offers diagnostic cardiac catheterization, cardiac CT and vascular ultrasounds.

St. Joseph Medical Center (Reading, Pa.). The St. Joseph Medical Center Heart Institute offers and array of comprehensive and innovative cardiac and vascular services. St. Joseph Medical Center received heart failure accreditation from the Society of Cardiovascular Patient Care in November 2012, and the hospital is also a certified chest pain center. The hospital was named one of the 50 Top Cardiovascular Hospitals for 2013 by Truven Health Analytics, formerly known as the healthcare business of Thomson Reuters.

St. Luke's Boise (Idaho) Medical Center. More heart procedures are performed at St. Luke's Boise Medical Center than any other hospital in Idaho. The hospital has worked beyond its walls to ensure cardiovascular health in the community, providing hundreds of automated external defibrillators to local schools, civic organizations and businesses. St. Luke's Boise is currently planning and seeking donations for a new heart care facility, the Cardiovascular Tower, which will serve as a single, regional location for heart and vascular treatment.  

St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital (Houston). St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital is home to the Texas Heart Institute, where one of the first few successful heart transplants in the nation took place in 1968, according to the hospital. Surgeons at the Texas Heart Institute also performed the world's first total artificial heart transplant. In March 2012, the hospital received accreditation as a heart attack receiving center from the American Heart Association and Society of Chest Pain Centers. It is the only hospital in Houston to earn that recognition.

St. Mary's Hospital (Richmond, Va.). St. Mary's Hospital is top-ranked by HealthGrades for cardiac surgery in Virginia. The hospital is accredited for heart failure care by the Society of Chest Pain Centers. Along with providing quality care, St. Mary's also offers innovative technology and heart resources. The hospital's digital cardiac lab is home to the world's first all-digital X-ray cardiovascular imaging system. The hospital was the first community hospital in Richmond to achieve Magnet accreditation from the American Nurses Credentialing Center.

St. Vincent Heart Center of Indiana (Indianapolis). St. Vincent Heart Center of Indiana was the first hospital in the state to earn the American Heart Association's Get With The Guidelines Coronary Artery Disease Gold Performance Achievement Award in 2007. The hospital includes six centers of excellence and offers an array of other programs and services. In October 2012, the heart center earned the Advanced Heart Failure and Transplantation Cardiology Fellowship Accreditation, meaning the hospital can train medical residents as heart transplant fellows.

Stanford Hospital & Clinics (Palo Alto, Calif.). Stanford Hospital & Clinics offers its cardiovascular heart program as a center of excellence. Physicians at Stanford claim to have performed the first successful human heart transplant in the nation in January 1968. The achievements at Stanford have continued since. Sharon Hunt, MD, a Stanford cardiologist, received the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation award for lifetime achievement, one of the most prestigious awards in the field of heart-transplantation medicine, in April 2012.

Tampa (Fla.) General Hospital. The Cardiovascular Center at Tampa General Hospital has six cardiac catheterization laboratories and six interventional radiology suites. Physicians with the hospital's heart transplant program have performed more than 1,000 transplants in the program's history, which is the fifth busiest heart transplant program in the country with one of the highest survival rates. In 2012, Tampa General began offering an investigational treatment for people battling treatment-resistant hypertension.

Thomas Jefferson University Hospital (Philadelphia). The heart-lung bypass machine was invented at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, and is just one of the hospital's claims to fame. Hospital researchers also discovered the pivotal role a protein called GRK2 plays in the heart's function, a finding that is helping advance the prevention of heart failure. In June 2012, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital added a new, state-of-the-art device that allows surgeons to monitor patients' complete cardiac function at the bedside.

University of California, San Diego Medical Center. The UC San Diego Sulpizio Cardiovascular Center became San Diego's first dedicated heart center when it opened in 2011. The center has four smart operating rooms and four cath labs. In February 2011, surgeons at the center completed a rare cardiac surgery called heterotopic heart transplantation, in which the patient's heart remains in place while a donor heart is implanted, leaving the patient with two hearts.  

University of Chicago Medical Center. University of Chicago Medical Center is home to one of the largest heart transplant and ventricular assist device programs in the Midwest. It was the first hospital in the world to perform a successful heart-kidney-liver transplant. The hospital is also involved in extensive cardiovascular clinical research. The medical center is one of 17 hospitals in the nation to be part of a clinical trial for the HeartWare HVAD left ventricular assist device, which claims to provide patients with up to 10 liters of additional blood flow, giving them a better quality of life.

The University of Kansas Hospital (Kansas City). The Center for Advanced Heart Care at The University of Kansas Hospital, which opened in 2006, added several new and innovative procedures in the past year. In May 2012, the hospital became one of the few to offer the Sapien transcatheter aortic heart valve, which doesn't require open-heart surgery to be implanted in a patient's chest. In October 2012, the hospital became the first in the country to use GPS technology on a cardiology patient. The technology shows physicians where a catheter is in the body during heart procedures to treat atrial fibrillation and other rhythm abnormalities.

University Hospitals Case Medical Center (Cleveland). University Hospitals Case Medical Center offers cardiovascular care through University Hospitals Harrington Heart & Vascular Institute. The institute boasts 11 centers of excellence, each with its own subspecialty, including electrophysiology and atrial fibrillation. UH Case Medical Center exceeds or matches the national average of heart attack care standards measured by the University HealthSystem Consortium.

University of Maryland Medical Center (Baltimore). The University of Maryland Heart Center offers many cardiovascular services, including procedures for high-risk patients. The Heart Center has a cardiac hybrid operating room and offers a unique team approach to care, from both heart surgeons and interventional cardiologists. The hospital's Pulmonary Hypertension Program is one of the few in the country to offer pulmonary thromboendarterectomy, a complex surgery that can cure chronic pulmonary hypertension.   

University of Michigan Hospitals and Health Centers (Ann Arbor). The University of Michigan Cardiovascular Center treats more than 6,000 patients each year. The center has garnered more than $180 million in research grant funding and participated in more than 700 cardiovascular clinical trials in the past five years. In May 2012, the University of Michigan Cardiovascular Center surgeons celebrated after performing the 500th heart device implant at the hospital.

UPMC Hamot (Erie, Pa.). The Heart Institute at UPMC Hamot was established to coordinate and manage the delivery of heart care. The institute is the region's only provider of the Dr. Dean Ornish Program for Reversing Heart Disease, which offers a unique way to treat coronary artery disease through lifestyle changes and education. UPMC Hamot was named one of the 50 Top Cardiovascular Hospitals for 2013 by Truven Health Analytics, formerly known as the healthcare business of Thomson Reuters.

Vanderbilt University Medical Center (Nashville, Tenn.). Vanderbilt University Medical Center is the first academic medical center in the country to use the PREDICT program, a genetic test to find which blood-thinning drug works best for each patient. It is also the first U.S. medical center to offer GGF2, a drug for patients recovering from heart failure that helped redevelop damaged heart muscle in trials. In 2012, Vanderbilt Heart surgeons performed the hospital's 100th transcatheter aortic heart valve replacement, the first of which was performed in 2011.  

WellStar Cobb Hospital (Austell, Ga.). Located roughly 20 miles outside Atlanta, WellStar Cobb Hospital is an accredited chest pain center through the Society of Chest Pain Centers. Two WellStar cardiologists were recently named to regional leadership roles in prominent cardiac organizations. Barry Mangel, MD, was named as president of the American Heart Association's metro Atlanta division advisory board and Donald Page, MD, was named the president of the Georgia Chapter of the American College of Cardiology.

Yale New-Haven (Conn.) Hospital. The Yale-New Haven Heart & Vascular Center treats the most heart and vascular patients of any center in the state. Yale-New Haven's history of innovation dates back to 1949, when two of the hospital's physicians created the first working heart-lung machine, which is now part of the Smithsonian's permanent collection. Yale-New Haven Hospital is also home to the multidisciplinary Center for Advanced Heart Failure, Mechanical Circulatory Support and Heart Transplantation. The center offers a range of evidence-based treatments, from drug therapies to surgery.

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