Healthgrades names hospital among top 10 percent in the nation.

Spartanburg Medical Center is the only hospital in South Carolina to receive the Healthgrades Cardiac Surgery Specialty Excellence Award for three consecutive years, from 2015 to 2017. 

This year, Spartanburg Medical Center's cardiac surgery division was also named among the top 10 percent in the nation. This is measured by volume-weighted performance according to this year's evaluation from Healthgrades. Healthgrades is the leading online resource for helping consumers make informed decisions in order to find the right doctor and right hospital for the right care. Every year, Healthgrades evaluates hospital performance at nearly 4,500 hospitals nationwide for 34 of the most common inpatient procedures and conditions.

“Our clinical teams come in contact with multiple cardiac patients every day. It's our attention to detail and commitment to quality that sets Spartanburg Medical Center's Heart Center apart from the rest,” said Chris Lombardozzi, MD, Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System chief medical officer of quality. “This designation from Healthgrades confirms to our clinical staff and patients that Spartanburg Medical Center provides top-notch care.”

Spartanburg Regional Medical Center is also a Five-Star Recipient for Coronary Bypass Surgery for 5 Years in a Row; from 2013 to 2017. A 5-star rating indicates that a hospital's clinical outcomes are statistically significantly better than expected when treating the condition or performing the procedure being evaluated.

These achievements are part of findings released today by Healthgrades and are featured in their 2017 Report to the nation. The new report demonstrates how clinical performance continues to differ dramatically between hospitals regionally and nationally.

Healthgrades research proves that patients treated at hospitals between 2013-15 that received the Cardiac Surgery Specialty Excellence Award had, on average, a 48.7 percent lower risk of dying than if they were treated in hospitals that did not receive the award.

 “Consumers have many choices regarding where to receive their healthcare, which is why it's so vital that they understand outcomes performance at specific hospitals for specific conditions and procedures,” said Evan Marks, Chief Strategy Officer, Healthgrades. “Those hospitals that have achieved a specialty excellence distinction in Cardiac Surgery from Healthgrades exemplify a commitment to exceptional quality of patient care.”

For its analysis, Healthgrades evaluated approximately 45 million Medicare inpatient records for nearly 4,500 short-term acute care hospitals nationwide, assessing hospital performance relative to each of 32 common conditions and procedures, as well as an evaluation of comparative outcomes in appendectomy and bariatric surgery using all-payer data provided by 18 states. Healthgrades recognizes a hospital's quality achievements for cohort-specific performance, specialty area performance, and overall clinical quality. Individual procedure or condition cohorts are designated as 5-star (statistically significantly better than expected), 3-star (not statistically different from expected) and 1-star (statistically significantly worse than expected) categories.

The complete Healthgrades 2017 Report to the Nation and detailed study methodology can be found at www.healthgrades.com/quality.