At Children’s, the quality of our care is our highest priority. We monitor our overall cardiac surgical outcomes and volumes to provide the most accurate information to patient families. It also allows us to identify areas for improvement. Our mission is to continually improve and help our heart patients live their best lives.
We report our outcomes to several databases, including the Pediatric Cardiac Critical Care Consortium (PC4), C3PO/Impact, the National Pediatric Care Quality Improvement Collaborative (NPC-QIC) and the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS). The STS has the largest congenital heart surgery database in the nation. Data is captured in STS by 100 hospitals as a way to compare outcomes between cardiac programs throughout the country.
Children's data showing the number of procedures performed from Jan. 2015- Dec. 2018.
Cardiothoracic surgery is any surgery related to or involving the organs in the chest, primarily the heart and the vessels that bring blood to and from the heart and lungs. Open heart surgeries refer to cardiac surgeries where cardiopulmonary bypass, or CBP, is used and a heart-lung machine maintains circulation of blood and oxygen while the surgeon repairs the heart. Closed heart surgeries are surgeries done without a heart-lung machine, or CBP.
STAT Category refers to a method of categorizing surgeries based on how risky or complex they are. STAT 1 surgeries refer to the least complex surgeries with the lowest risk of death, while STAT 5 surgeries refer to the most complex surgeries with the highest risk of death.
Children's data based on surgeries performed Jan 2017-Dec 2018; STS data based on surgeries performed Jul 2017-Jun 2018, as reported in the Fall 2018 Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) Congenital Heart Surgery Database Report
A heart catheterization is a non-surgical procedure used to find out what kind of heart defect your child may have, its location in the heart and how severe it is. Some heart defects can be treated by a catheterization instead of open-heart surgery.
A central line, also known as a central venous line or CVL, is a special type of intravenous, or I.V., line. A central line-associated bloodstream infection, or CLABSI, happens when bacteria, or more rarely fungus, grow in your child’s central line or bloodstream. A CLABSI is serious and requires that your child get antibiotics immediately. If not handled correctly, it can even cause death. Your child’s care team follows guidelines to help prevent your child from getting a CLABSI.
During 2019 (December 2018 – November 2019), the Children’s Heart Center had a low rate of CLABSIs, performing much better than other children’s hospitals who are members of the Solutions for Patient Safety National Children’s Network (SPS).
