Quality & Outcomes
Finding the best care is one of the most important decisions you’ll ever make, and many factors will influence your decision about where your child will be treated.
At UF Health, we believe in patient-centered care, and we strive to ensure that patients and their families are taken care of throughout the patient’s treatment. During your initial visits and follow-up appointments, we’ll take time to answer all of your questions and concerns.
Among the many questions parents should ask about any congenital heart center they’re considering for their child’s care is: What are your outcomes?
As part of our commitment to quality and improvement, the UF Health Congenital Heart Center reports its outcomes annually to the Society for Thoracic Surgeons (STS) Congenital Heart Surgery Database. Through our participation in the STS program, we are able to compare our outcomes with other congenital heart programs across the country.
The STS Congenital Heart Surgery Database has become the gold standard for specialty outcomes databases. Our voluntary participation in the STS database demonstrates our center’s commitment to providing the highest quality and safest care to our patients.
Our Outcomes
The UF Health Congenital Heart Center takes care of some of the sickest children in Florida and the southeastern United States, and we have excellent outcomes.
Our data are pulled from the May 2017 report from the STS Congenital Heart Surgery Database, covering procedural data from January 1, 2013, through December 31, 2016. This report includes information from 116 North American congenital heart surgery participants. STS data are arranged by complexity of procedure, based on STAT Categories 1-5, or the Society of Thoracic Surgeons – European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery Congenital Heart Surgery Mortality Categories.
- STAT Category 1 cases are less complex procedures that have a low risk of complications (i.e. closures of atrial septal defects and ventricular septal defects).
- STAT Category 2 cases are procedures that have an increased risk of complications (i.e. coarctation of the aorta repair, congenitally corrected transposition of the great arteries, ventricular septal defect repair).
- STAT Category 3 cases are complex procedures that have an increased risk of complications (i.e. hemiFontan and arterial switch operation).
- STAT Category 4 cases are more complex procedures that have a higher risk of complications (i.e. Tetralogy of Fallot repairs and truncus arteriosus repairs).
- STAT Category 5 cases are the most complex procedures and have the highest risk of complications (i.e. Norwood procedure and heart-lung transplant).
As of 2016, the UF Health Congenital Heart Center’s overall operative survive rates – averaging all STAT categories – are above the national average.
