Volume 17, No. 2, Spring 2009
In the words of Paul Dreyer, State Department of Public Health Director of Health Care Safety and Quality, “Massachusetts has some of best cardiac surgical care in the nation.”
According to the study that prompted this comment, for one of the two procedures covered in the report, Cape Cod Hospital can be said to be the best of the best.
Or, put another way, if you’re gonna have a heart attack, this is a good place to have it.
One phase of the report detailed mortality rates for adults undergoing cardiac bypass (open heart) surgery. The other concerned patients who have undergone a Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI) or angioplasty to clear a blocked coronary artery.
In Massachusetts, 22 hospitals are licensed to perform PCI. During the period covered, only one, Cape Cod Hospital, was identified as having a significantly lower than expected death rate for patients arriving in shock or who were having a major heart attack.
During the period covered, Cape Cod Hospital performed 104 PCI procedures. Statistically, 4.16 percent of these patients would not be expected to survive. At Cape Cod Hospital, the actual rate was half that figure, 2.8 percent.
Most PCIs involve inserting a catheter into a coronary artery and inflating a balloon to relieve a blockage that is impeding blood flow. This procedure usually is performed only on patients at high risk of, or who are having, a heart attack.
As for Adult Coronary Artery Bypass Graft Surgery (CABG), more commonly known as open heart surgery, Cape Cod Hospital is one of only 14 hospitals in Massachusetts licensed to perform this procedure.
None of the 14 exceeded the expected mortality rate. During the period covered, Cape Cod Hospital performed 76 open heart surgeries, the lowest number of the 14. North Shore Medical Center-Salem Hospital was next lowest at 103.
Another study of these CABG outcomes showed that Cape Cod Hospital’s mortality rate was almost one-third lower than the national expected average for deaths; 1 percent compared to 2.9 percent.)
Dr. Richard F. Salluzzo, President/CEO of Cape Cod Healthcare, expressed pride at the report’s results, particularly considering the need for such services on the Cape where “there is a high incidence of heart disease due to our older population. This latest report again substantiates that we have world-class cardiologists…along with advanced technological capabilities.”
Or, as Dr. Richard Zelman, director of the program, put it bluntly, “We have proven yet again that we are really the best hospital to come to in the entire state if you have a heart attack or cardiogenic shock and expect to survive.”
The data, covering procedures performed during Fiscal Year 2007, were analyzed by Mass-DAC, a data coordinating center operated by Harvard Medical School’s Department of Health Care Policy, and released by the DPH Bureau of Health Care Safety and Quality.
The studies showed that the risk of dying in the immediate aftermath of either procedure under review has decreased significantly statewide over the past five years.