WMHS Heart Institute Recognized Among Nation's Best for Clinical Outcomes

Cardiac Care and Cardiac Surgery Cited in Ninth Annual HealthGrades Study

The WMHS Heart Institute has been ranked among the top five percent in the nation for heart surgery, and the top ten percent for overall cardiac care, according to a comprehensive study released on October 16 by HealthGrades, the nation's leading healthcare ratings company.

WMHS Heart Institute is the recipient of the 2007 HealthGrades Cardiac Surgery Excellence Award™ and the Cardiac Care Excellence Award™. Additionally, WMHS Heart Institute is ranked #1 in Maryland for heart surgery and #1 in Maryland for overall cardiac services for the second consecutive year.

"We are honored to receive this recognition for the quality cardiac care we provide to our patients," said Barry P. Ronan, WMHS President/CEO. "Our goal was to develop a quality cardiac surgery program for area residents, and we have been able to establish a nationally recognized program thanks to the commitment of the entire team at the WMHS Heart Institute. This is the fourth time that HealthGrades has ranked our cardiac surgery program among the Top 5% percent in the nation for heart surgery and we are so proud of that accomplishment."

"This commitment to excellence extends to our entire cardiac care program, including our coronary interventional procedures. Our ranking as #1 in Maryland for overall cardiac services again this year lets our patients know that the best care is close to home."

As part of its ninth annual Hospital Quality in America Study, HealthGrades independently analyzed more than 5,000 hospitals in all 50 states and the District of Columbia for its 2007 ratings, objectively assessing their clinical outcomes and quality. The 40 million hospitalization records utilized in the assessment are publicly available and licensed from the federal government's Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The HealthGrades ratings take into account varying degrees of patient severity from hospital to hospital and measure whether patient outcomes for each of more than two dozen procedures and diagnoses are better than expected (5-Star), as expected (3-Star) or worse than expected (1-Star).

"Consumers continue to ask for more and better information to help them in their health care decision making," said Samantha Collier, M.D., HealthGrades' vice president of medical affairs. "Our analysis provides an apples-to-apples comparison of hospital performance by procedure or diagnosis, and it is evident there is significant variance between individual hospitals. For WMHS Heart Institute to rank among the nation's best reflects the efforts of everybody in the organization, and should be very comforting to area residents."

The 2007 HealthGrades ratings for all hospitals nationwide are available, free of charge, on HealthGrades' consumer Web site, located at www.healthgrades.com. More than three million individuals and employees of more than 125 major employers visit the HealthGrades web site every month to access quality information about hospitals, nursing homes and physicians. HealthGrades also provides consumers and payers with detailed assessments of hospitals' patient-safety outcomes, based on indicators developed by the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.