Northside Hospital has earned a distinguished three-star rating from The Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) for its patient care and outcomes in isolated coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) procedures. The three-star rating, which denotes the highest category of quality, places Northside Hospital among the elite for heart bypass surgery in the United States and Canada.
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. The star rating is calculated using a combination of quality measures for specific procedures performed by an STS Adult Cardiac Surgery Database participant.
Historically, approximately 6%–10% of participants receive the three-star rating for isolated CABG surgery. The latest analysis of data for CABG surgery covers a 1-year period, from January 2019 to December 2019.
“The Society of Thoracic Surgeons congratulates STS National Database participants who have received three-star ratings,” said David M. Shahian, MD, chair of the Task Force on Quality Measurement. “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.”
“This distinction is testament to our team continually exceeding the national standards and for providing exceptional patient care to the patients we are privileged to serve in our community,” Valerie Powell-Stafford, CEO Northside Hospital.
The STS National Database was established in 1989 as an initiative for quality improvement and patient safety among cardiothoracic surgeons. The Database includes four components: the Adult Cardiac Surgery Database (ACSD), the Congenital Heart Surgery Database (CHSD), the General Thoracic Surgery Database (GTSD), and the mechanical circulatory support database (Intermacs). The STS ACSD houses approximately 6.9 million surgical records and gathers information from more than 3,800 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.
About Northside Hospital
Serving the community since 1976, Northside Hospital is a 288-bed hospital, offering a full range of services including comprehensive and interventional stroke care, preventative and corrective cardiac care, full-service orthopedic and spine treatment an ER 24/7®, and general surgery. As one of the first hospitals in the area to achieve Atrial Fibrillation Certification (SCPC), our technologically advanced hospital allows our highly skilled physicians, nursing, and caregivers to serve our growing community. Northside Hospital is the first nationally recognized Comprehensive Stroke Center in Pinellas County and nationally recognized for quality and safety by earning an ‘A’ Patient Safety grade from the Leapfrog Group. Our employees voted us a Tampa Bay Times Top Workplace in 2020. With campus-based specialized services including the Tampa Bay Heart Institute and the Neuroscience Institute for Interventional Neuroradiology and neurologic care, Northside Hospital continues to enhance and expand its services to better serve the community.
About STS
The Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) is a not-for-profit organization that represents more than 7,300 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.