Five UMC heart doctors honored

In March, Good Housekeeping magazine named five UMC physicians to their list of the country's best heart doctors. Of the 357 doctors named, seven are from Arizona. Doctors were cited in seven categories.

Dr. Joseph Alpert and Dr. Gordon Ewy were named as top adult cardiologists, Dr. Jack Copeland as an adult heart surgeon and Dr. Bruce Coull and Dr. William Feinberg as neurologists. All five of the doctors work at UMC.

To compile the lists, a firm representing Good Housekeeping called the heads of relevant departments at universities and hospitals across the nation, said Mei Cheng, an editorial assistant at the magazine.

"The doctors were asked to nominate those they feel are the best in the field. In order to keep things fair, we asked them not to name anybody from their own facility, but rather where they would send a patient or who they would see in another part of the country," Cheng said.

According to the magazine, the list includes the 357 doctors cited most often from the more than 1,000 specialists named.

Ewy, who is chief of cardiology at UMC and the director of the University Heart Center, was not only named in the survey, but took part as well.

"To get named in something like this, you have to have a national reputation, like being invited to talks or have written a lot. At University Heart Center, we have many superb cardiologists," he said.

Ewy said that he thinks highly of many of the UMC doctors, but since he could not name them, he named who thinks are the best doctors and who he might go to if he were out of the state.

"Those of us who were named are simply more nationally known than the average physician. It was certainly a nice honor, and I think it really reflects the quality of care at UMC and the heart center," he said.

In August, UMC was named as one of the country's best hospitals for cancer care and treatment by U.S. News and World Report magazine in their annual guide to America's best hospitals.

According to the magazine, the rankings, in 16 specialties, are based on 1,961 evaluated hospitals. Each hospital is assigned an index score based one-third on reputation, one-third on mortality rate and one-third on other medical data, which varies by specialty. The top hospital in each specialty is assigned a score of 100, and the others are scaled down.

UMC received a score of 16.7 and was ranked 31st in the cancer area, its only specialty that made the list.

The Arizona Cancer Center has a large reputation and is the main reason for UMC's ranking, said George Humphrey, director of public relations at UMC, but because it is a clinic without beds, patients are housed at the hospital.

UMC president and CEO Greg Pivirotto said that the ratings are important for the hospital on a national level as well as a local one.

"We don't go out necessarily seeking those rankings, but it is important that right here in Tucson we have a nationally recognized medical center that can compete with the best of them," he said. "I think people in Tucson and Arizona should know that they have this jewel in the desert and such great people working here."