Our Heart and Vascular Center of Excellence provides care for those suffering from heart disease throughout Central New England. Patients may be seen at our community hospitals for routine cardiac care and have peace of mind knowing that they have direct access to the region's most advanced testing and newest facilities at the heart hospital at UMass Memorial Medical Center.
Our Heart and Vascular Hospital features our Cardiovascular Step-down Unit, dedicated Cardiac ICU (supported with advanced eICU technology - another first in the Commonwealth), and cardiac medical/surgical unit. Additionally, our patients benefit from the region's most state-of-the-art operating suites and Cardiac Catheterization and Electrophysiology Labs.
Two UMass Memorial hospitals rank in the top five statewide for surviving a heart attack according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS):
- For the fifth year in a row, UMass Memorial Medical Center is the number one hospital in Massachusetts.
- HealthAlliance Hospital ranks number four in Massachusetts for the third year in a row.
Our focus of constant improvement of quality in all areas of cardiovascular care is validated by the latest CMS report. Our string of achievements and recognitions include:
- The Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) awarded its highest designation - three stars - to our Cardiac Surgery Program, five years in a row for coronary artery bypass surgery. UMass Memorial is one of 968 participants in the STS cardiac surgery database. Only 14 percent of these hospitals receive this three-star rating.
- STS also awarded three stars to our Cardiac Surgery Program for aortic valve replacement surgery. Only 3.2 percent of the 968 hospitals participating receive this rating.
- Our cardiac surgeons received a three star rating from Consumer Reports for bypass cardiac surgery based on overall performance, complications and other quality measures.
- Our Cardiac Surgery Program had a zero percent mortality rate in 2010 for patients undergoing isolated CABG surgery.
- In 2009, the Cardiac Surgery Program was awarded the Betsy Lehman Patient Safety Recognition Award for its accomplishments in building a culture of safety, reducing health care associated infections, enhancing data monitoring resulting in implementation of evidence-based best practices, and focusing on innovative system-based solutions to support ongoing improvement in quality and patient safety.
- Our Cardiac Catheterization Lab was ranked #1 in Massachusetts for the lowest mortality rates for shock/STEMI patients (those having a heart attack) according to the most recent report from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.
- Our "door-to-balloon" time averages 50 minutes, significantly below that standard of 90 minutes set by The Joint Commission.
- Our Vascular Surgery Program was the first in the United States to implant an investigational branched endovascular graft to repair abdominal aortic aneurysms.
- The Medical Center was the first hospital in New England to offer Revo MRI™ SureScan® pacing system, the only MR-Conditional pacing system designed, tested and FDA approved for use in the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) environment.
- UMass Memorial Medical Center continues to rank number one for overall intensive care unit (ICU) quality of care by the VISICU eICU® Quality Consortium as part of a national benchmarking study. The consortium includes 40 health care systems in 28 states, more than 200 hospitals and nearly 300,000 ICU patients per year.