UAB is one of only three hospitals in the United States to receive a three-star ranking in each of the five categories of surgery.The University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Adult Cardiovascular Surgery program was awarded the Society of Thoracic Surgeons’ highest overall composite quality star rating of three stars.
The STS is the world’s premier clinical registry for cardiac surgery and contains data from more than 1,000 cardiac surgery institutions that represent approximately 6 million records. Participation in the STS registry represents UAB’s commitment to improving care provided to heart surgery patients.
The three-star rating applies to performance for coronary artery bypass grafting, aortic valve replacement and mitral valve replacement. This designation denotes that performance is significantly higher than the STS mean. Furthermore, of the 600 hospitals nationally performing heart surgery and reporting data to the STS in these three categories, UAB scored a “3” star in all five cardiac surgical categories of CABG, AVR, MVR, CABG + AVR, and CABG + MVR. UAB’s overall composite rating ranks nationally along with two other hospitals — out of 1,008 — in the five specific heart surgery categories.
“This is great news and shows that the teamwork with everyone including cardiology, anesthesia and nursing continues to make a real difference in the program and particularly in the outcomes for our patients,” said James Davies, M.D., UAB division director of Cardiothoracic Surgery.
These scores indicate that UAB Heart and Vascular Services maintains a high degree of professionalism for surgical performance that results in clinical excellence.