Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery earns three-star rating from STS
College of Medicine – Tucson Department of Surgery
The University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson Department of Surgery is proud to announce the division of Cardiothoracic Surgery has earned a distinguished three-star rating from The Society of Thoracic Surgeons for patient care and outcomes in isolated coronary bypass grafting procedures. The three-star rating, which denotes the highest category of quality, places the division among the elite for heart bypass surgery in the U.S. and Canada.
The STS star rating system is one of the most sophisticated and highly regarded overall measures of quality in health care, rating the benchmarked outcomes of cardiothoracic surgery programs across the United States and Canada. The star rating is calculated using a combination of quality measures for specific procedures performed by an STS Adult Cardiac Surgery Database participant.
Approximately 20% of participants receive the three-star rating for isolated CABG surgery. The latest analysis of data for CABG surgery covers a three-year period, from July 2020 to June 2023.
“The Society of Thoracic Surgeons congratulates STS National Database participants who have received three-star ratings,” said David M. Shahian, MD, chair of the Task Force on Quality Measurement. “Participation in the Database and public reporting demonstrates a commitment to quality improvement in health care delivery and helps provide patients and their families with meaningful information to help them make informed decisions about health care.”
The STS National Database was established in 1989 as an initiative for quality improvement and patient safety among cardiothoracic surgeons. The Database includes four components: the Adult Cardiac Surgery Database, the Congenital Heart Surgery Database, the General Thoracic Surgery Database and the mechanical circulatory support database (Intermacs). The STS ACSD houses approximately 6.9 million surgical records and gathers information from more than 3,800 participating physicians, including surgeons and anesthesiologists from more than 90% of groups that perform heart surgery in the U.S. STS public reporting online enables STS Adult Cardiac Surgery Database participants to voluntarily report to each other and the public their heart surgery scores and star ratings.
About STS
The Society of Thoracic Surgeons is a not-for-profit organization that represents more than 7,600 surgeons, researchers and allied health care professionals worldwide who are dedicated to ensuring the best possible outcomes for surgeries of the heart, lung and esophagus, as well as other surgical procedures within the chest. The society’s mission is to enhance the ability of cardiothoracic surgeons to provide the highest quality patient care through education, research and advocacy.