Dr. Charles Bridges

The open heart surgery program at Carolinas HealthCare System's Sanger Heart & Vascular Institute has received top honors from the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS).

The program received three out of three stars and was ranked in the top 15 percent nationally. The ranking covers data from July 2010 to June 2011.

Doctors at the Sanger institute performed 327 coronary artery bypass surgeries during that period, well above the national average of 155 per year. The team also performed more valve and bypass surgeries than the national average.

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The rankings are based on a range of measures developed by STS, including survival rates, avoidance of complications and adherence to appropriate internal processes before, during and after surgery.

“The rating indicates that at Sanger Heart & Vascular Institute we deliver the highest quality of care based on a number of measures that the STS uses to evaluate program outcomes,” said Charles R. Bridges, chair of the thoracic and cardiovascular surgery department. “This involves indices of not just how well patients do, but what processes we have in place to ensure that our patients continue to do well after they leave the hospital.”

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