Hospital Receives Another Industry Honor

A local cardiac surgical group has been named one of the best in the country, according to a recent "Consumer Reports" study.

Morristown's Mid-Atlantic Surgical Associates–the group of cardiothoracic surgeons that performs heart surgery at Morristown Memorial Hospital's Gagnon Cardiovascular Institute–has received Consumer Groups' top rating for coronary artery bypass graft surgery.

Consumer Groups is the independent, nonprofit organization that publishes "Consumer Reports" magazine. The information was published online Sept. 7, and is expected to be in the print version of the magazine on newsstands next month, said Pam Garretson, public relations manager for Morristown Memorial Hospital.

A CABG surgery is one in which the surgeon opens the patient's chest, reroutes blood through a heart-lung machine, stops the heart, grafts arteries or veins around the blockages, restarts the heart and then wires the chest back together, said Garretson.

Last year, Gagnon's cardiothoracic surgeons performed 1,127 total open heart surgeries, she said; of those, 606 were CABG procedures. The operation also can be performed off-pump, minimally invasively or as a hybrid procedure in certain instances.

According to "Consumer Reports," there are more than 1,000 surgical groups in the United States that perform heart bypass surgery, and about 90 percent of them provide performance data to the Society of Thoracic Surgeons–a nonprofit organization that represents about 5,400 heart surgeons and other doctors nationwide who operate on the chest. Of that group, 221 made their data available to the publication.

Mid-Atlantic Surgical Associates earned three stars, which qualifies as "above average" and is the highest rating in the "Consumer Reports" study.

"Patients are making more choices and wiser decisions about their health care," said John Brown III, chief of cardiovascular surgery and vice chair of cardiovascular medicine at the Gagnon Cardiovascular Institute. "We shared our superior data and quality outcomes to assist our patients in making those informed choices."

Only two other New Jersey hospitals reported data: Valley Hospital in Ridgewood, which also earned three stars, and Englewood Hospital and Medical Center which earned two, according to the report.

The Society of Thoracic Surgeons uses 11 standardized measures endorsed by the National Quality Forum, a nonprofit organization dedicated to establishing national health care standards for performance improvement. The measures fall into four main categories: patient survival, absence of surgical complications, recommended medications and optimal surgical techniques.

"Morristown Memorial Hospital has long been a top destination for its highly rated cardiac surgery program–the largest in the state," said David Shulkin, president of the hospital and vice president of Atlantic Health. "To receive yet another affirmation from a respected consumer organization only helps our patients and referring physicians by providing more information and reassurance about our top-quality doctors and staff."