By
Cyndy Cole
Arizona Summer Wildcat
Center praised for excellent patient care, low mortality rates
An outstanding reputation for patient care was just one reason UMC's Sarver Heart Center ranked No. 25 in the nation's top 50 hospital programs, according to the U.S. News and World Report's July 23 "Best Hospitals 2001."
"There are over 6,000 hospitals in the U.S.," said Dr. Gordon Ewy. a physician at University Medical Center. "To be ranked 25th is very impressive. We are one of the three (hospitals) in the West (to rank in the top 50)."
The National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago and U.S. News and World Report narrowed down the choices from 6,000 hospitals to 1,878, from which the 50 hospitals were chosen. Those hospitals' programs were then evaluated using 13 evenly-weighted criteria.
The criteria included the hospitals' reputation among doctors, patient mortality rate, it's status as a teaching hospital, how many technological services are offered and how many Medicare patients were discharged after treatment, among others.
"In reputation and mortality ratios, our ratio was better than some of the hospitals ranked above us," said Pila Martinez, UMC spokeswoman.
Other criteria included the number of patients discharged after heart surgery, the number of registered nurses per hospital bed, the availability of an on-site trauma center, which geriatric and gynecological services were offered and the number of intensive-care beds in the hospital.
Several other programs were also highly ranked in the guide, but the Sarver Heart Center is what put UMC on the pioneering edge of medicine, Martinez said.
"We took over the technology and developed the artificial heart into what it is now," she said.
Survival rates for patients five years after their heart transplant surgeries at the center are 78 percent, compared to the national average of 70 percent, said an official from the United Network for Organ Sharing.
Sarver Heart Center is also the only place in Arizona that performs heart transplant surgeries, Martinez said.
UMC was also named the third-busiest hospital in the year 2000 by U.S. News and World Report because the staff completed four heart and lung transplants.
"People need to realize there's a real treasure in their midst," Ewy said.
Though Ewy is pleased with the ranking, he said physicians and researchers at Sarver Heart Center won't settle and will only keep trying to improve.
"We want to continue to try and improve in every way for a future free of heart disease," Ewy said.
UMC also ranked in the top 50 hospitals for gynecology (28), cancer treatment (30), rheumatology (34), neurology (37), pulmonary disease treatment (38), geriatrics (38), kidney disease treatment (42), urology (42), and orthopedics (44), as listed in the guide.
