University Times

2 UPMC hospitals win national awards

The two tertiary hospitals of UPMC Health System, UPMC Shadyside and UPMC Presbyterian, have been selected 1999 national award winners from among nearly 700 hospitals nationwide that provide cardiovascular serv ices.

HCIA Inc. released findings of a study titled The 100 Top Hospitals: Cardiovascular Hospitals. HCIA Inc. collects, manages and distributes comparative health care information.

UPMC Shadyside was the only local hospital to be named among the best in two areas: interventional cardiology services (such as heart catheterization and angioplasty) and cardiac bypass surgery services.

UPMC Presbyterian was named among the best for cardiac bypass surgery services.

The study identifies top performing hospitals in high-risk, high-cost and high-volume procedures. The survey singled out hospitals in which death rates and complications were lower and lengths of stay were less expensive and shorter.

Clinical criteria include risk-adjusted mortality and complications and volume of procedures performed; mortality adjusted for risk of death of each patient at admission; the percentage of angioplasty patients undergoing bypass surgery during the same adm ission; the percentage of bypass surgery using internal mammary arteries, and the percentage of severity-adjusted procedures with a tracheostomy.

Management criteria include severity-adjusted lengths of stay and wage and severity-adjusted cost per patient.

The cardiac bypass surgery service at UPMC Presbyterian is headed by Bartley Griffith, Henry T. Bahnson Professor and chief, division of cardiothoracic surgery. Heading UPMC Shadyside cardiovascular teams are James O'Toole, director of interventional card iology, and V.R. Machiraju, chief of cardiovascular surgery.