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ChristianaCare’s Center for Heart & Vascular Health Earns 3-Star Rating for Heart Bypass Surgery From Society of Thoracic Surgeons

Feb 24, 2022

3 min

Kirk Garratt, M.D., MSc

ChristianaCare’s renowned Center for Heart & Vascular Health has earned the highest quality rating—three stars—from the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) for its patient care and outcomes in isolated coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) procedures. The prestigious three-star rating places ChristianaCare among the elite health care organizations 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.


“Earning a three-star rating for heart bypass surgery places us among the top heart hospitals in the nation,” said Ray Blackwell, M.D., the W. Samuel Carpenter Chief of Cardiac Surgery at ChristianaCare. “Delaware residents can be confident that they have one of the best heart surgery teams in the nation right here, close to home, at ChristianaCare.”


The three-star rating from STS adds to ChristianaCare’s long list of awards for quality heart care. For the past two years, the Center for Heart & Vascular Health has earned the designation HeartCARE Center National Distinction of Excellence from the American College of Cardiology for its commitment to high quality cardiovascular care. In addition, the Center for Heart & Vascular health received the American Heart Association’s 2021 Mission: Lifeline Gold Quality Achievement Award for the treatment of patients who suffer severe heart attacks; the 2021 Get With The Guidelines NSTEMI Silver Award for patients with a less severe form of heart attack; and the 2021 Get With The Guidelines Gold Plus Award for Heart Failure.


“Our Center for Heart & Vascular Health and our community have much to be proud of,” said Kirk Garratt, M.D., medical director of the Center for Heart & Vascular Health. “We provide great outcomes, and we also listen to patients and families and work to ensure that the stressful experience of surgery is as easy as it can be. That kind of commitment leads to this kind of recognition.”


Heart Disease Remains a Leading Killer in the U.S.

According to the American Heart Association (AHA), heart disease remains a leading killer in the nation—claiming more than 600,000 lives each year. In addition, the AHA anticipates the effects of COVID-19 are likely to influence cardiovascular health and mortality rates for many years.


“February is American Heart Month, and there is no better time for us to take stock of our heart health than now,” Dr. Garratt said. “The COVID-19 pandemic has presented new challenges to people living with chronic conditions such as heart disease. People with heart conditions are at greater risk of complications from the virus and also continue to need assistance managing their heart health. If you are a heart patient, please do not postpone your regular visit with your cardiologist.”


The STS is a not-for-profit organization that represents more than 7,600 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 STS National Database was established in 1989 as an initiative for quality improvement and patient safety among cardiothoracic surgeons.


“The Society of Thoracic Surgeons congratulates STS National Database participants who have received three-star ratings,” said David Shahian, M.D., 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.”


About the Center for Heart & Vascular Health

ChristianaCare’s Center for Heart & Vascular Health is among the largest, most capable regional heart centers on the East Coast. It is one of the only centers in the region that integrates in a single location and under one roof cardiac surgery, vascular surgery, vascular interventional radiology, cardiology and interventional nephrology. Its team of experienced cardiovascular surgeons and heart experts perform nearly 700 open-heart procedures each year and treat more than 8,000 total heart and vascular cases annually. For more information, visit https://christianacare.org/services/heart/.


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Kirk Garratt, M.D., MSc

Kirk Garratt, M.D., MSc

Medical Director of Center for Heart & Vascular Health and John H. Ammon Chair of Cardiology

Dr. Garratt oversees one of the nation's busiest heart programs, renown for its exceptional speed in heart attack response times.

CardiologyCardiovascular DiseaseHeart Health

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2 min

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5 min

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The key to lowering health care costs is to improve quality, access and equity Data show that about 5% of patients in the United States account for more than 50% of all health care costs. These are primarily patients who have complex and poorly managed chronic conditions that cause them to end up in the most expensive care settings—hospitals, operating rooms, emergency departments. The key to driving down health care costs is to improve quality and equity so that everyone is supported in achieving their best health, and these high users of the most expensive kinds of care are better supported in managing their health conditions such as diabetes or heart failure in the appropriate way. In doing so, they prevent the need for costly emergency or “rescue” care. Let’s do more—not less—of what we already know works Health care is not a one-size-fits-all industry. The delivery of care for patients across a diverse population requires multiple interventions at the same time. These interventions are designed not only to improve the quality of care but also to close the gap in terms of health care disparities. That’s important, because when we improve care and outcomes for the most vulnerable populations, we tend to get things right for everyone. One type of intervention is about doing exactly the right things for a patient based on the evidence of what will help—and doing nothing extra that will cause harm or generate additional costs without providing additional benefit. An example of this might be ensuring that every patient who has a heart attack gets a certain drug called a beta blocker right after their heart attack, and they receive clear guidance and support on the actions they must take to reduce their risk of a second heart attack, such as regular exercise and good nutrition. The second type of intervention is for the highest-risk populations. These are patients who live in poor communities where there are no gyms and no grocery stores, and people commonly have challenges with transportation and lack of access to resources that makes it difficult—sometimes impossible—to follow their plan for follow-up care. They lack access to high-nutrient food that reduces their risk of a second heart attack. They also live in areas where there are fewer health care providers compared to more affluent areas. These interventions tend to be very intensive and do not generate income for health systems; in fact, they require significant non-reimbursed investment, but they are necessary to keep our most vulnerable patients healthy. The medical community has developed interventions for these populations that are proven to work. A local example is the Delaware Food Pharmacy program, which connects at-risk patients with healthy food and supports their ability to prepare it. 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House Bill 350 will widen the gap between those who have means and those who are more vulnerable. These changes will lead to increased disease burden on these populations. They will end up in the emergency room more and hospitalized more, which is by far the most expensive kind of care. That’s not what anyone wants—and it’s the opposite of what this bill was intended to accomplish. At this moment, in Delaware, we have an opportunity to put our state on a sustainable path to better health for all Delawareans. House Bill 350 is not that path. However, the discussion that House Bill 350 has started is something that we can build on by bringing together the stakeholders we need to collaborate with to solve these complicated problems. That includes Delaware’s government and legislators, the hospitals and health centers, the insurance, pharmacy and medical device industries, and most importantly, patients and the doctors who care for them. LeRoi Hicks, M.D., is the campus executive director for ChristianaCare, Wilmington Campus.

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