St.Vincent Heart Center of Indiana Honored Again for

Top Cardiovascular Care

CARMEL – The award-winning St.Vincent Heart Center of Indiana is celebrating its third recent national recognition for providing exemplary cardiovascular care.  St.Vincent Heart Center was first honored by HealthGrades as the number one provider of overall cardiac care in Indiana for the third consecutive year.

The American Heart Association recently recognized the highly-regarded heart facility for earning its Get with the Guidelines Gold Performance Achievement Award.  Thomson Healthcare, a leading provider of decision support solutions that helps healthcare organizations improve clinical and business performance, just named St.Vincent Heart Center as one of the nation’s 100 Top Hospitals® for cardiovascular care for the second consecutive year. 

“We are honored to have received these prestigious recognitions from such renowned national companies,” said John Stewart, CEO of St.Vincent Heart Center.  “Our track record assures the Indiana community that they can receive nationally-recognized cardiovascular care from a hospital based in their home state.  We will remain committed to delivering high-quality care for our patients, and ensuring that they receive the very best outcomes close to home.”

The American Heart Association’s Get with the Guidelines – Coronary Artery Disease (GWTG-CAD) Gold Performance Achievement Award was achieved by St.Vincent Heart Center of Indiana for its commitment and success in implementing a higher standard of cardiac care that effectively improves treatment of patients hospitalized with coronary artery disease.

The American Heart Association also awarded St.Vincent Heart Center two additional Get with the Guidelines honors – Silver and Bronze Performance Achievement Awards.  These separate recognitions are awarded to healthcare providers who accomplish an average of 85 percent compliance in the Association’s coronary artery disease module’s six key measures over a 90 day, 12 month and 24 month periods.

St.Vincent Heart Center is the first healthcare provider in Indiana to receive the Gold Performance Achievement Award from the American Heart Association for sustained performance over 24 months. 

The annual Thomson Healthcare award is based on hospitals’ performance treating congestive heart failure and heart attacks.  St.Vincent Heart Center received this award for both its Carmel and Indianapolis locations, and it is the second time the hospital has received this honor. 

The study — 2007 Thomson 100 Top Hospitals®: Cardiovascular Benchmarks for Success — examined the performance of nearly 1,000 U.S. hospitals by analyzing their outcomes for eight measures related to congestive heart failure, heart attacks, coronary artery bypass grafts (CABGs), and percutaneous coronary interventions (PCIs), such as angioplasties.

If all cardiovascular programs achieved the same results as the 100 Top Hospitals award winners, according to the study, more than 7,000 lives would be saved and nearly 750 medical complications would be avoided annually.  The 100 Top Hospitals also had hospital stays that were 12 percent shorter than peer hospitals, and performed more heart procedures than other hospitals.

###