STS report confirms hospital's outstanding surgical outcomes
About one in 125 newborns is affected by a heart defect at birth, making congenital heart defects a leading cause of death in infancy. Over 35 identified defects span the range from mild and treatable to complex and life-threatening. Yet today, the vast majority of infants born with heart defects — even those with severe disease — are successfully treated and can expect to live healthy and active lives, thanks to the expertise of programs such as NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital of New York (MSCHONY) and Komansky Children's Center.
Of all the centers that treat children with heart disease in New York State, MSCHONY far surpasses all others in terms of patient volume. The most recent national evaluation also confirms the program's performance not just in terms of volume, but in clinical excellence: despite treating many patients with the most severe and complex conditions, the pediatric cardiac surgery program at NYP/Columbia has achieved outcomes superior to every other New York hospital performing the same surgeries. In addition to its top position in New York, MSCHONY's outcomes also surpass the national rates in virtually every procedure. Overall the center continues to rank in the top four centers nationally.
The most recent report, the Congenital Heart Surgery Database of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS), lists the most frequent procedures performed in newborns and infants, and compares NYPH's results against national outcomes from January 2008 to December 2011 (four full years). The STS database is considered the gold standard in terms of quality assessment in Congenital Heart Surgery. In all but two procedures, NYPH's outcomes are significantly better than the national average, as measured by mortality.
For example, the national mortality rate for newborns undergoing the Norwood procedure (for hypoplastic left heart syndrome or other single ventricle disorders) is 16.7%, while at NYP/Columbia, the mortality rate is 12.9%. The mortality rates for arterial switch or arterial switch with ventricular septal defect (VSD) repair, and surgeries for aortopulmonary shunt, aortic arch repair, and interrupted aortic arch repair, are 3%, 6.7%, 4.4%, and 5.4% respectively across the nation. In comparison, the mortality rates for each of those procedures at NYPH is 0. For totally anomalous pulmonary venous connection (TAPVC) repair, the hospital's mortality rate is just 3.8%, compared to 14.1% nationally. Overall, the non-risk adjusted mortality rate for all procedures is 2.4% at NYP compared to 3.3% nationally–but when adjusted for the higher risk of many of its patients, NYPH's mortality rate improves even further.
To learn more about the Pediatric Surgery Program, please visit: www.childrensnyp.org