NEW BEDFORD, Mass. – Southcoast Health was recently featured as one of the top hospitals in the nation with the lowest heart attack mortality rate by Becker’s Hospital Review, a popular and impartial healthcare industry website.

According to Becker’s, this recognition was based on clinical data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The data, which is from July 2011 through June 2014 and the most recent available, was collected from CMS’s Hospital Compare website.
All of the top hospitals have a 30-day mortality rate from heart attack of 11.7 percent or less, which is well below the national average of 14.2 percent, according to Becker’s.

To see the full report from Becker’s, visit http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/quality/53-hospitals-with-the-lowest-heart-attack-mortality-rates-112415.html.

Another national recognition for Southcoast Health’s Cardiovascular Services

This honor adds to the list of distinguished recognitions earned by Southcoast Health’s Cardiovascular Services in the past year. These include being:

• Named one of the nation’s 50 Top Cardiovascular Hospitals by Truven Health Analytics, an independent and objective research firm.
• Ranked first in New England – eighth in the nation – among the Best Hospitals for Heart Attack Care according to BetterDoctor, an independent consumer health website.
• Recognized as One of America’s 100 Best Hospitals for Cardiac Care for the fifth year in a row, and a recipient of the Healthgrades Cardiac Care Excellence Award for the 10th year in a row.
• Named a Top Performer on Key Quality Measures for its performances in heart attack, heart failure and surgical care by the Joint Commission, the leading accreditor of healthcare organizations in the U.S.

More about Southcoast Health’s Cardiovascular Services

The Southcoast Cardiovascular Service program provides a broad spectrum of services locally, including open heart procedures, cardiac catheterizations, coronary angioplasty and cardiac implantable devices. In 2002, Southcoast Health became the first community hospital in Massachusetts to launch an open heart surgery program, and this year we will perform more than 400 open heart surgeries, which is more than some hospitals in major metropolitan areas.

Southcoast’s state-of-the-art electrophysiology laboratories and hybrid operating room at Charlton Memorial Hospital provide diagnostic testing for cardiac arrhythmias and minimally-invasive procedures such as arrhythmia ablations and Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR). More recently, Southcoast is one of only three hospitals in New England to be implanting the Watchman Device, which can allow atrial fibrillation (AFib) patients to safely discontinue the use of blood thinners.