Study Ranks Sarasota Memorial Hospital’s Sarasota Campus Among 50 Top U.S. Heart Hospitals

SARASOTA, FL — Sarasota Memorial Hospital’s Sarasota campus was named among the nation’s 50 top-performing heart hospitals by Fortune and IBM Watson Health in a list released Tuesday.

SMH-Sarasota is the only hospital in Southwest Florida recognized in the Fortune/IBM Watson Health 50 Top Cardiovascular Hospitals rankings this year.

Other Florida hospital on the list include the Mayo Clinic Florida in Jacksonville, Ascension Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola and St. Joseph’s Hospital in Tampa.

The annual study identifies the 50 highest performing hospitals in the United States that treat a broad spectrum of cardiology patients, and specifically deliver excellent care to patients treated for heart attacks, heart failure, and those undergoing heart bypass surgery and cardiac catheterization procedures.

IBM Watson Health based its analysis on publicly available data from nearly 1,000 acute care, non-federal U.S. hospitals, and care they provided to Medicare patients from 2016 through 2020.

Related Stories:

• 'A' Grades In Patient Safety Given To Sarasota, Manatee Hospitals
• ESPN's Dick Vitale Treated For Cancer At New Oncology Center

According to the study, when compared to cardiovascular hospitals that didn’t make this list, the top 50 heart hospitals demonstrated:

• significantly higher inpatient survival
• fewer patients with complications
• higher 30-day survival rates for acute myocardial infarction (AMI), heart failure (HF) and coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) patients
• lower readmission rates for AMI, HF and CABG patients
• shorter lengths of stay and lower total costs per patient case
• better patient experience scores

Like what you're reading? Invite a friend to subscribe to free Sarasota newsletters and real-time email alerts.

If all U.S. hospitals’ cardiovascular programs performed at the level of SMH and the study’s other top performers, some 6,400 additional lives and roughly $1.4 billion could be saved, and 5,000 additional bypass and angioplasty patients could be complication-free, according to the study.

“I couldn’t be prouder of our entire team,” James Fiorica, MD, Sarasota Memorial’s chief medical officer, said. “From our physicians and nurses to the many therapists, technologists and staff who collaborate and support patient care, their diligence and dedication saves lives every day.”