Springfield Earns Top Rating from the Society for Thoracic Surgeons

Mercy Health – Springfield announces that it has earned a distinguished three-star rating – the best possible rating – from The Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) for its patient care and outcomes in isolated coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) procedures. Mercy Health - Springfield is the only healthcare provider within a 60-mile radius to consistently achieve the highest rating of three stars.

The three-star rating, which denotes the highest category of quality, places Mercy Health - Springfield among the elite for heart bypass surgery in the United States and Canada. STS calculates the star rating using a combination of quality measures for specific procedures performed by an STS Adult Cardiac Surgery Database participant.

STS’s review of the coronary bypass program at Mercy Health – Springfield also noted that patients benefitted from lower blood transfusion rate, less time in the operating room and less time on a ventilator, all of which are quality parameters leading to lower complication rates for patients undergoing surgery.

“The STS star rating system is one of the most sophisticated and highly regarded overall measures of quality in health care, rating the benchmarked outcomes of cardiothoracic surgery programs across the United States and Canada,” said Matt Caldwell, President and CEO, Mercy Health – Springfield. “It’s Mercy Health’s mission to serve the community and we pride ourselves on providing great care close to home. I congratulate the doctors, nurses and staff of our cardiac care team for the exceptional work they have done to earn this honor and more importantly, ensure our patients benefit from the best possible care.”

“The Society of Thoracic Surgeons congratulates STS National Database participants who have received three-star ratings,” said David M. Shahian, MD, Chair of the STS Council on Quality, Research, and Patient Safety. “Participation in the Database and public reporting demonstrates a commitment to quality improvement in health care delivery and helps provide patients and their families with meaningful information to help them make informed decisions about health care.”

Historically, approximately 10%–15% of participants receive the three-star rating for isolated CABG surgery. The latest analysis of data for CABG surgery covers a one-year period and includes more than 1,000 participating sites that are on track to perform more than 150,000 coronary bypass procedures this year. 

The STS established the National Database in 1989 as an initiative for quality improvement and patient safety among cardiothoracic surgeons. The Database includes three components: the Adult Cardiac Surgery Database (ACSD), the Congenital Heart Surgery Database (CHSD) and the General Thoracic Surgery Database (GTSD). The STS ACSD houses approximately 6.3 million surgical records and gathers information from more than 3,700 participating physicians, including surgeons and anesthesiologists from more than 90% of groups that perform heart surgery in the US. STS public reporting online enables STS ACSD participants to voluntarily report to each other and the public their heart surgery scores and star ratings.

The Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) is a not-for-profit organization that represents more than 7,400 surgeons, researchers, and allied health care professionals worldwide who are dedicated to ensuring the best possible outcomes for surgeries of the heart, lung, and esophagus, as well as other surgical procedures within the chest. The Society’s mission is to enhance the ability of cardiothoracic surgeons to provide the highest quality patient care through education, research, and advocacy.