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About this Measure

This measure reports the percentage of patients who died while in the hospital after undergoing any type of heart surgery, such as a cardiac bypass or heart valve replacement.

A lower number is better for this measure.

What is a Benchmark?

Southcoast compares all of its internal quality measures against benchmarks to help gauge our performance. Benchmarks are usually an external suitable comparison group, such as a national average, or an expected target set by an external agency. When none are available, Southcoast sets its own internal performance goals.

This benchmark: This benchmark comes from The Society of Thoracic Surgeons national database that reports a number of surgery-related measures from many hospitals across the country.

What Does This Mean?

A low mortality rate can be a sign of a successful and safe heart surgery program. The rate will never be zero since a patient can die within 30 days for a reason that has nothing to do with the heart surgery, such as an auto accident or other medical condition.

Southcoast's heart surgery mortality rate is better than the national average.

What Southcoast is Doing to Improve this Measure

Southcoast's expert heart surgery team takes many steps to keep patients safe. If a heart surgery patient does die, the case is reviewed in detail by our team of experts and including experts who work with us from Tufts-New England Medical Center in Boston. If we find ways to improve care, we change our policies, procedures and conduct on-going education with our physicians and staff to provide the ultimate expert and recommended care for our patients.

A Note About Our Data

All data on this site are aggregate data for all Southcoast Hospitals sites.

Trend for this Measure

This chart shows how this measure has changed over the past 24 months.

Contact Us

Quality and patient safety is extremely important to Southcoast Hospitals. Let us know whether this information is helpful or how we could better serve you.

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