Kaweah Delta named among America's Best in Cardiac
VISALIA – Kaweah Delta today was recognized by
Healthgrades as one of America’s 50 Best Hospitals™ for Cardiac Surgery
and America’s 100 Best Hospitals™ for Cardiac Care. Kaweah
Delta is just one of four hospitals in California, and the only one in
the Central Valley, to receive these distinctions.
The achievements are part of findings released today in the Healthgrades
2018 Report to the Nation, which also recognizes Kaweah Delta’s
commitment to quality care with six additional recognitions in the Healthgrades
2018 Report to the Nation, released today, including:
- Recipient of the Healthgrades 2018 Cardiac Care Excellence Award™
- Recipient of the Healthgrades Cardiac Surgery Excellence Award™ for
2 Years in a Row (2017-2018)
- Named Among the Top 5 percent in the Nation for Cardiac Surgery in 2018
- Named Among the Top 10% in the Nation for Overall Cardiac Services in 2018
- Five-Star Recipient for Coronary Bypass Surgery for 2 Years in a Row (2017-2018)
- Five-Star Recipient for Treatment of Heart Attack for 2 Years in a Row
(2017-2018)
“For more than 50 years, it has been our goal to provide the highest
level of exceptional locally-based care to our community. These distinctions
illustrate just that, and highlight how Kaweah Delta’s dedicated
team of physicians, nurses and clinical staff at Kaweah Delta is committed
to improving the lives of patients,” said Edward Hirsch, M.D., Vice
President and Chief Medical and Quality Officer at Kaweah Delta.
In determining its cardiac quality awards, Healthgrades evaluated nearly
4,500 hospitals nationwide for 34 of the most common inpatient procedures
and conditions.* Healthgrades identified the best-performing hospitals
across all conditions or procedures evaluated within the cardiac services
area including Bypass Surgery, Valve Surgery, Coronary Intervention Procedures,
Heart Attack, Heart Failure, Defibrillator Procedures and Pacemaker Procedures.
The new Healthgrades’ report demonstrates how clinical performance
continues to differ dramatically between hospitals nationally, regionally
and at the local level, and the impact that this variation may have on
health outcomes. For example, from 2014-2016, the report notes that patients
treated at hospitals receiving the America's 50 Best Hospitals for
Cardiac Surgery Award have, on average 52.4% lower risk of dying than
if they were treated in hospitals that did not receive the award and patients
treated at hospitals that did not receive the America's 100 Best Hospitals
for Cardiac Care Award are, on average 1.39 times more likely to die than
if they were treated at hospitals that did receive the award.*
*Statistics are based on Healthgrades analysis of MedPAR data for years
2014 through 2016 and represent 3-year estimates for Medicare patients only.
Kaweah Delta offers a full range of cardiovascular services in partnership
with the following physicians: Cardiothoracic Surgeons Sergio Caminha,
M.D. and Leheb Araim, M.D.; and Cardiologists Basil Abu-El-Haija, M.D.,
Ashkan Attaran, M.D., Kusai Aziz, M.D., Sukhvinder Bhajal, M.D., David
Cislowski, M.D., Frank Gavini, M.D., Reza Rafie, M.D., H. Rajender Reddy,
M.D., Bindusagar Reddy, M.D., Shashi Sharma, M.D., Shailesh Shetty, M.D.,
Bikram Soni, M.D., and Nallathamby Thayapran, M.D. Dennis Johnson, M.D.,
Harry Lively, M.D., Vinod Gupta, M.D., Barry Meyer, M.D., Ashok Verma,
M.D., Aditya Verma, M.D., and Ankur Gupta, M.D., John Lin, M.D.
Based in Visalia, Kaweah Delta is a leader in heart care through the support
of board-certified cardiologists, cardiothoracic surgeons, vascular surgeons
and cardiac anesthesiologists, who work with Kaweah Delta's dedicated
heart team. This team is made up of physicians, highly-specialized health
professionals qualified to take care of a person’s heart and lungs,
and registered nurses specially trained to care for critical care patients.
Together, they work as a team to provide patients with integrated, specialized,
and scientific-based medicine – all the specialized care and support
needed for heart care in Visalia. Patients are provided 24-hour care both
before and after surgery.
Brad Bowman, M.D., Healthgrades, Chief Medical Officer, said while many
consumers believe that hospital quality is standardized, the reality is
that clinical quality and outcomes at hospitals vary widely across the
country. “The hospitals that have achieved the Healthgrades America’s
Best Hospitals for cardiac distinction have demonstrated a commitment
to exceptional quality of care and can distinguish themselves to consumers
seeking care at high-quality facilities,” he said.
**For its analysis, Healthgrades evaluated approximately 45 million Medicare
inpatient records for nearly 4,500 short-term acute care hospitals nationwide
to assess hospital performance in 32 common conditions and procedures,
and evaluate outcomes in appendectomy and bariatric surgery using all-payer
data provided by 17 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 2018 Report to the Nation and detailed study methodology can be found at
www.healthgrades.com/quality.