Cardiovascular Center named one of nation's 100 best
Chitwood
GREENVILLE, N.C.
(Dec. 15, 2003)
—
For the second year in a row, the Cardiovascular
Center of University Health Systems of Eastern
Carolina has been named among the nation's top 100
centers for the treatment of cardiovascular disease.
Solucient, a firm that collects and analyzes health
care information, named the Cardiovascular Center in
its fifth "100 Top Hospitals: Cardiovascular
Benchmarks for Success" study, which identifies
hospitals that are setting high performance standards
for cardiovascular services throughout the nation.
Solucient takes into account mortality rates, complication
rates, lengths of stay, the cost of care and other
data that are keys to quality patient care. Solucient
doesn't consider a hospital's reputation or notoriety in
its rankings.
The center is ranked among teaching hospitals with
cardiovascular residency training programs. Pitt
County Memorial Hospital has a post-residency and
post-fellowship program that trains surgeons in
robotic and mitral valve surgery. PCMH was the only
teaching hospital with a residency program in North
Carolina to make the list. The only other hospital in
the state to be included was Mission Hospital in
Asheville, listed among teaching hospitals without a
cardiovascular residency program. The top
community hospitals were also listed, but none from
North Carolina made the list.
"I think it demonstrates an ongoing commitment
by our staff and physicians to make sure we are
bringing high-quality care to our patients," said
Deborah Davis, PCMH president. "We also believe
this effort provides us with a strong foundation of
quality cardiac services as we move forward with plans
to build a new cardiovascular facility."
Davis also credited the hospital's partnership with
the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina
University and private-practice physicians for the
quality of heart care delivered at PCMH.
Using information from Solucient's hospital
database and from the publicly available Medicare
Provider Analysis and Review data set, Solucient
looked at hospitals that treated patients with acute
myocardial infarction, congestive heart failure, percutaneous
transluminal coronary angioplasty and
coronary artery bypass graft (more commonly known
as heart attack, heart failure, angioplasty and heart
bypass surgery).
Dr. Randolph Chitwood, a
cardiothoracic surgeon and
director of the
Cardiovascular Center, said
being included among the
top 100 cardiovascular
hospitals for the second year
in a row was a "vote of confidence"
in the quality of
cardiac care delivered at
PCMH.
"The importance of the Solucient recognition
resides in actual measurements of quality and not
merely name recognition of a medical center,"
Chitwood said. "It suggests that our institution gives
the highest quality of care and exceeds all national
guidelines for cardiovascular therapy. This
achievement is the work of many people including
the physicians, nurses, technicians and administrators
associated with our Cardiovascular Center and cardiovascular
diseases program."
