Patient Insights: “Un-Wrapping” a Cardiac Surgery Outcomes Report
Written By: Adam Pick, Patient Advocate, Author & Website Founder
Page last updated: July 22, 2024
When planning heart surgery, patients want to know they will get a safe and excellent outcome. A collaborative team of experienced cardiac doctors, surgeons, and practitioners with an outstanding track record should be a non-negotiable.
For that reason, HeartValveSurgery.com is dedicated to helping patients find a reliable team of doctors to fix their hearts. So, when I recently walked out to my mailbox and unexpectedly found a “Cardiac Surgery Outcomes Report” report from Baylor Scott & White The Heart Hospital in Plano, Texas, I immediately opened the report. Within seconds, I quickly realized how important this information could be to heart valve surgery patients – whether in watchful waiting or preparing for an upcoming surgery.
Key Learnings About Cardiac Surgery Outcomes Reports
Here are important insights from the cardiac surgery outcomes report:
- Cardiac surgery volume is critical for many reasons. Baylor Scott & White The Heart Hospital does an extraordinary volume of cardiac procedures and is one of the top five busiest cardiac centers in the United States. For example, Baylor Scott & White The Heart Hospital has performed over 3,000 minimally-invasive transcatheter aortic valve replacements.
- Understand the different approaches and options for treating valvular disease. Baylor Scott & White The Heart Hospital provides traditional, minimally-invasive and transcatheter approaches to repair and replacement heart valves. For example, here is data regarding their utility of robotics and open-heart surgery techniques.
- Knowledge, research and capabilities in many cardiac conditions is important for heart valve patients. Baylor Scott & White The Heart Hospital provides a broad spectrum of cardiac services, from heart valves to atrial fibrillation to coronary arteries and aneurysms. The chart below shows the case volume for left atrial appendage occlusion that is used to treat atrial fibrillation which occurs in up to 35% of heart valve patients.
- Look for society certifications and awards. Baylor Scott & White The Heart Hospital received three stars from The Society of Thoracic Surgeons, the absolute best ranking possible. I’ve included a free instant download link here so everyone in the community can learn from this wonderful report.
- Know the actual outcomes from your potential doctors and hospitals. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the report showed the actual outcomes for treatments of the aortic valve, mitral valve, and complex operations. Here is a chart showing TAVR in-hospital outcomes.
The Big, Big, Big Takeaway
If you are preparing for a heart procedure, ask your doctor or medical team if they have an outcomes report you can review. If they don’t, I strongly encourage you to ask your physician, “What are your outcomes for my heart valve procedure?”
As I experienced, heart surgery is a significant moment in one’s life that is, unfortunately, filled with risk. I often tell my patients in the community, “This is no haircut.” That said please take the time to research your potential care team.
Thank to Baylor Scott & White The Heart Hospital!
Many thanks to the Baylor Scott & White The Heart Hospital, for sending me their cardiac surgery outcomes report so that our patient community could learn from it!
So you know, I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing and getting to know the team of incredible heart surgeons at Baylor Scott & White The Heart Hospital, including Dr. Rob Smith, Dr. Katherine Harrington, Dr. Bill Brinkman, Dr. Justin Schaffer, and Dr. Michael Mack. They all continue to play an integral role in the impressive results contained in this report.
Related Links:
- Download the Baylor Scott & White The Heart Hospital Cardiac Surgery Outcomes Report
- How to Access The Online Society of Thoracic Surgeons Database of Cardiac Surgery Outcomes?
- Congressman recognizes Baylor Scott & White The Heart Hosptial-Plano
- 91-year-old golfer is the 3,000th patient to receive TAVR at Baylor Scott & White The Heart Hospital
Keep on tickin!
Adam
P.S. For the deaf and hard-of-hearing members of our community, I have provided a written transcript of this video below.
Written by Adam Pick
- Patient & Website Founder
Video Transcript:
Adam Pick: Hi everybody. It’s Adam with heart-valve-surgery.com and this is our first ever unwrapping of a cardiac surgery outcomes report. Why am I doing this? Well, I wanted to share with all the patients in our community.
My surprise when I walked out to my mailbox and found this extraordinary collection of cardiac surgery results from our friends at Baylor Scott and White, the Heart Hospital Plano in Plano, Texas, including Dr. Michael Mack, Dr. Rob Smith, Dr. Catherine Harrington, Dr. Bill Brinkman, and Dr. Justin Schaefer.
As I flip through the pages of this report, I quickly realized How important this information could be to a heart valve patient who may be in watchful waiting or preparing for an upcoming surgery.
Personally, I got a lot of learnings from the Baylor, Scott and White report. I learned about the sheer volume of cardiac procedures performed at Baylor Scott White, which is one of the top five busiest cardiac centers in the United States. For example, they’ve done over 3, 000 transcatheter aortic valve replacements.
I learned about the spectrum of cardiac services. that are provided by Baylor, Scott and White from heart valves to atrial fibrillation to coronary arteries and to aneurysms. I also got information about the approaches to treat those diseases, whether it was open heart, minimally invasive, including robotics or transcatheter.
Lastly, and most importantly in my opinion, I got to learn the actual outcomes whether it was for treatments of the aortic valve or the mitral valve or complex operations. Baylor, Scott and White received three stars from the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, which is the best ranking you can get so that you can see this exact report.
I’m going to put a free instant download link in the post below the big, really big takeaway here is that if you are preparing for a heart procedure. You may want to ask your doctor or medical team the question, do you have an outcomes report that I can look at? And if they don’t, I would strongly encourage you to ask your physician, what are your outcomes for my specific heart valve procedure?
As I experienced, heart surgery is a significant moment in one’s life that is unfortunately filled with risk. I often tell patients this is no haircut. That said, please, please take the time to research your potential care team. Many thanks to our friends at Baylor Scott and White, the heart hospital Plano in Plano, Texas, for sending us their cardiac surgery outcomes report so that I and all the great members of our community could learn from it.
And as we always say here at heart-valve-surgery.com, keep on tickin!
