UMass Memorial ranks number one in Massachusetts and New England for surviving a heart attack. It is among the top five hospitals nationwide for the second year in a row. According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), UMass Memorial is the only hospital to rank in the top five for the past two years. The CMS report is now posted on www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov.

UMass Memorial also recently was named a Top 100 Hospital for Cardiovascular Benchmarks by Thomson Reuters. Thomson Reuters examined the performance of nearly 1,000 US hospitals by analyzing their outcomes for measures related to coronary artery bypass grafts and percutaneous coronary interventions, such as angioplasties. The analysis used data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. It identified 100 hospitals that did significantly better than their peers on risk-adjusted measures of mortality and complications.

Since 2005, our focus has been on improving quality in all areas of cardiovascular care. This latest CMS report validates our efforts and adds to a string of achievements and recognitions:

• Our survival rate for patients having coronary artery bypass surgery is more than 99 percent - better than the state average of 97.8 percent.
• The Society of Thoracic Surgeons awarded its highest designation - three stars - to our cardiac surgery program, UMass Memorial is one of 1,000 participants in the STS cardiac surgery database. Only 13 percent of these hospitals receive the three-star rating. And UMass Memorial has maintained this designation for three years in a row.
• Our "door-to-balloon" time averages 60 minutes, significantly below that standard of 90 minutes set by The Joint Commission.
• UMass Memorial continues to be recognized for bringing advanced care to the region's most critically ill and complicated vascular patients.
• We recently reached another milestone with the completion of our Heart and Vascular Hospital featuring our new Cardiovascular Step-down Unit, dedicated Cardiac ICU (supported with advanced eICU technology - another first in the Commonwealth), and cardiac medical/surgical unit. Additionally, our patients benefit from the region's most state-of-the-art operating suites and Cardiac Catheterization and Electrophysiology Labs.