Where to Find the Best Heart Hospitals

Christina Bates -

Each year, US doctors perform more than 500,000 bypass operations, a comparable number of angioplasty procedures and tens of thousands of heart-valve operations.

The national success rate for all of these procedures is 90% to 95%a testament to the overall quality of America's cardiac centers.

Important: A number of hospitals stand out for their long, successful records in performing a wide variety of heart operations, their reputations as surgical innovators and their ability to treat especially complex or rare conditions.

Anyone who's looking for the most experienced cardiac surgeons in his/her geographical area should consider the institutions listed below. These heart centers have the greatest number of cardiac surgeons and other cardiac specialists listed in Castle Connolly's America's Top Doctors (which contains the top 1% of US physicians, as rated by their peers) and score high in other independent and highly regarded ratings of health-care services, providers and institutions.

Northeast

  • Johns Hopkins Hospital Department of Cardiac Surgery (Baltimore).

Special expertise: Heart transplantation, heart-valve surgery, robotic heart surgery (a new minimally invasive surgery that uses a computerized "robot" to perform complex operations). 410-955-2800, www.hopkins medicine.org/cardiacsurgery.

  • PENN Cardiac Care at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia).

Special expertise: Coronary artery surgery, heart transplantation, heart-valve surgery. First in region to use robotics during heart surgery. 800-789-7366, www.pennhealth.com/car diac/bup.

  • Massachusetts General Hospital Division of Cardiac Surgery (Boston).

Special expertise: Coronary artery surgery, heart transplantation, heart-valve surgery. Surgeons perform 1,000 bypass operations a year. 617-726-3726, www.massgeneral.org/cardiac surgery.

  • New York-Presbyterian Hospital, Columbia University Medical Center Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery (New York City).

Special expertise: Coronary artery surgery heart transplantation, heart-valve surgery. Former President Bill Clinton received his bypass operation here. Surgeons perform more than 1,500 open-heart procedures a year. 212-3052633, www.columbiasurgery.ory pat/cardiac/ index.html

Southeast

Duke University Medical Center Duke Heart Center (Durham, North Carolina).

Special expertise: Coronary artery surgery, heart transplantation, heart-valve surgery. Has more than 80 board-certified cardiologists, cardiac surgeons and cardiac anesthesiologists on staff. 888-275-3853, www.dukebealth.org/ servicesandlocations services beart.

  • Shands Cardiovascular Center at the University of Florida (Gainesville).

Special expertise: Aortic surgery, congenital heart disease care, heart-valve surgery. Center is known for state-of-the-art diagnostic and surgical skills. 352-265-0457, www.sbands.org find service and click on "Heart Care."

  • Vanderbilt University Medical Center Page-Campbell Heart Institute (Nashville).

Special expertise: Coronary artery surgery, heart-valve surgery, robotic heart surgery. Center is known for cutting-edge techniques, including minimally invasive surgical approaches to coronary-bypass grafts. 615-322-0526, www.vanderbiltheartsurgery.com.

Midwest

  • Barnes Jewish Hospital Washington University Heart Care Institute (St. Louis).

Special expertise: Coronary-artery surgery, heart transplantation, heart-valve surgery. Surgeons here perform more than 900 valve and coronary-artery operations a year. 314-362-1291, www.barnesjewish.org.

The Cleveland Clinic Heart Center (Cleveland).

Special expertise: Heart-valve surgery, minimally invasive cardiac surgery. Noted for treating heart rhythm disorders with radio-frequency ablation (a sophisticated procedure that involves heating and destroying diseased heart tissue). 800 223 2273 ext. 46697, www. clevelandclinic.org/heartcenter.

  • Mayo Clinic Heart Surgery (Rochester, Minnesota).

Special expertise: Heart transplantation, heart-valve surgery, open-heart surgical repair of aortic aneurysm. Surgeons at this clinic perform more than 2,500 heart operations annually. 507-255-2000, www.mayoclinic.org/heartsurgery-rst.

  • University of Iowa Heart Care (Iowa City).

Special expertise: Congenital heart disease treatment, heart transplantation, minimally invasive cardiac surgery. One of the nation's leading heart research centers. 319-356-4346, www. uibealthcare.com/depts/uiheartcare.

Southwest

Texas Heart Institute at St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital (Houston).

Special expertise: Coronary artery surgery, heart transplantation, heart-valve surgery. More than 100,000 open-heart procedures have been performed at this institute. 800-292-2221, www. Texasheartinstitute.org.

University of Utah Health Sciences Center Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery (Salt Lake City).

Special expertise: Coronary artery surgery, heart transplantation, heart-valve surgery. Wide-ranging expertise offers full range of noninvasive diagnostic technology. 800-884-3278, www. uubscutab.edu/cardiothoracic.

West

  • UCLA Medical Center Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery (Los Angeles).

Special expertise: Congenital heart disease care, coronary artery surgery, heart transplantation. The first West Coast heart center to perform a bypass using an artery harvested endoscopically from the wrist (in 2002). 310 206-8232, www.healthcare.ucla.edu and click on "Departments," then "Surgery."

  • UW Medicine Regional Heart Center (Seattle).

Special expertise: Coronary artery surgery, heart transplantation, heart-valve surgery. Surgeons at this heart center have performed more than 300 heart transplants. 206-598-9135, www.uwmedicine.org/patientcare/medicalspecialties and click on "Heart Care/Cardiology."