Peter Jump, director of public relations for the UVA Health System, is eager to share some numbers from the UVA Heart and Vascular (H&V) Center (www.healthsystem.virginia.edu). This is why.
Spurred by a study of 365 hospitals by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI), sources from The New York Times to USA Today published stories in mid-November that documented poor national results in “door to balloon” time—a window of 90 minutes designated by the American Heart Association as the ideal timespan to move a heart attack victim from admission to angioplasty.
On the heels of these stories, the UVA Health System released its “door to balloon” stats from September to November 2006. Not only did the Heart and Vascular Center beat the 90-minute window in 100 percent of cases, it did so by a margin of 20 minutes.
This release capped a year of good news for the H&V Center, also ranked by U.S. News and World Report as one of America’s Best Hospitals for Heart/Heart Surgery (a top 50 finish). Of the 50 UVA doctors included in the 2006 edition of America’s Top Doctors, two specialize in cardiology. And a $9 million grant from the NHLBI in August to fund techniques for detecting and preventing atherosclerosis (a cause of heart disease) was followed with another grant of $5.5 million for the same goal a month later.
Quantifications of the heart
UVA Heart and Vascular Center, 2006 statistics
Number of angioplasties 760
Number of major heart operations 1,000
Bypasses 365
Valve replacements/repairs 281
Pediatric heart surgeries 261
Inpatients 5,661
Outpatients 30,000+
Cardiovascular surgeons 7
Cardiologists 32
Additional staff 600+
Source: UVA Health System
