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Kaweah Delta named among America’s Best in Cardiac Care and Cardiac Surgery Hospital also among top in the Nation for Overall Pulmonary Services and Stroke Treatment

Valley Voice Contributor

VISALIA – Kaweah Delta is one of America’s best 50 Best Hospitals™ for Cardiac Surgery and one of America’s 100 Best Hospitals™ for Cardiac Care, according to a national study released this week by Healthgrades. Kaweah Delta is just one of a seven hospitals in California, and the only one in the Central Valley, to receive the distinction as one of America’s 50 Best Hospitals™ in Cardiac Surgery. Additionally, it is one of only 10 hospitals in California, and the only one in the Central Valley, to be named one of America’s 100 Best Hospitals for Overall Cardiac Care.

“This is a consequence of our hard team work between the cardiac surgeons and our wonderful hospital staff. It shows that we do provide high-quality services to our community,” said Sergio Caminha, M.D., Medical Director of Cardiac Surgery at Kaweah Delta Medical Center.

The achievement is part of findings released this week in the Healthgrades 2019 Report to the Nation. The new report demonstrates how clinical performance differs dramatically between hospitals nationally, regionally and at the local level, and the impact that this variation has on health outcomes. For the 2019 Report to the Nation, Healthgrades compared Specialty Excellence Award Recipients as a group, to all other hospitals, as a group, and found from 2015-2017, patients treated at hospitals receiving the America’s 100 Best Hospitals for Cardiac Care Award have, on average: 26.9% lower risk of dying than if they were treated in hospitals that did not receive the award. Patients treated at hospitals which did not receive the America’s 50 Best Hospitals for Cardiac Surgery Award are, on average: 2.04 times more likely to die than if they were treated at hospitals that did receive the award.*

*Statistics are based on Healthgrades analysis of MedPAR data for years 2015 through 2017 and represent 3-year estimates for Medicare patients only.

Ashok Verma, M.D., Medical Director of the Cath Lab at Kaweah Delta, said it is always nice to be recognized because the team works hard to provide excellent patient care. “We are very happy to see that our hard work continues to be recognized,” he said. “This is a result of our entire team that cares for our Cardiac patients from the staff in the Emergency Department, Cath Lab, Intensive Care Unit, Cardiac Step Down Unit, Case Workers, and Cardiac Rehab.  We could not accomplish this without everyone doing a great job. We appreciate all the physicians and the staff members.”

Kaweah Delta offers a full range of cardiovascular services in partnership with the following physicians: Cardiothoracic Surgeons Sergio Caminha, M.D. and Leheb Araim, M.D.; and Cardiologists Ashkan Attaran, M.D., Kusai Aziz, M.D., Sukhvinder Bhajal, M.D., David Cislowski, M.D., Frank Gavini, M.D., Ankur Gupta, M.D., Dennis Johnson, M.D., Harry Lively, M.D., Vinod Gupta, M.D., Barry Meyer, M.D., Reza Rafie, M.D., H. Rajender Reddy, M.D., Bindusagar Reddy, M.D., Sarmad Said, M.D., Shashi Sharma, M.D., Shailesh Shetty, M.D., Bikram Soni, M.D., Nallathamby Thayapran, M.D., Aditya Verma, M.D., and Ashok Verma, M.D.

Hospitals that have achieved the Healthgrades America’s 50 and 100 Best Hospitals for cardiac surgery and cardiac care have proven their dedication to quality care and exceptional outcomes, said Brad Bowman, MD, Chief Medical Officer at Healthgrades. “Consumers should consider hospital quality when navigating their care journeys, and this recognition distinguishes Kaweah Deltain the marketplace,” Bowman said.

The report also recognized Kaweah Delta’s commitment to quality care with the following awards and star ratings:

Variation in care has a significant impact on health outcomes. For example, from 2015 through 2017, if all hospitals as a group performed similarly to hospitals receiving 5 stars as a group, then on average 222,210 lives could potentially have been saved and 157,210 in-hospital complications could potentially have been avoided.* A 5-star rating indicates that Kaweah Delta’s clinical outcomes are statistically significantly better than expected when treating the condition or performing the procedure being evaluated.

Based in Visalia, Kaweah Delta is a leader in heart care through the support of board-certified cardiologists, cardiothoracic surgeons, and vascular surgeons who work with Kaweah Delta’s dedicated heart team. This team is made up of physicians, highly-specialized health professionals qualified to take care of a person’s heart and lungs, and registered nurses specially trained to care for critical care patients. Together, they work as a team to provide patients with integrated, specialized, and scientific-based medicine – all the specialized care and support needed for heart care in Visalia. Patients are provided 24-hour care both before and after surgery.

For its analysis, Healthgrades evaluated approximately 45 million Medicare inpatient records for almost 4,500 short-term acute care hospitals nationwide to assess hospital performance in 32 common conditions and procedures, and evaluated outcomes in appendectomy and bariatric surgery using all-payer data provided by 15 states and the District of Columbia. Healthgrades recognizes a hospital’s quality achievements for cohort-specific performance, specialty area performance, and overall clinical quality. Individual procedure or condition cohorts are designated as 5-star (statistically significantly better than expected), 3-star (not statistically different from expected) and 1-star (statistically significantly worse than expected) categories. The complete Healthgrades 2019 Report to the Nation and detailed study methodology can be found at www.healthgrades.com/quality/.

Kaweah Delta is a publicly-owned community healthcare organization that provides comprehensive health services to the greater Visalia region and Tulare County. For more information, visit www.kaweahdelta.org.

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