Cardiac Care—Heart Surgery

Of the 39 hospitals in New York State that are approved to perform heart surgeries on adult patients, ECMC has one of the best survival rates in Western New York, with a 1.67 Total Risk-Adjusted Mortality Rate (RAMR) for isolated coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgeries and a 2.74 total RAMR for combined procedures, including isolated CABG and heart-valve replacement and/or repair.

The data appear in the recently released New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) report, Adult Cardiac Surgery in New York State 2002–2004, dated June 2006, on page 21, table 5, titled, “2002–2004 Hospital and Surgeon Outcomes.” Additional statistics published in the table for the aforementioned procedures include number of cases, number of deaths, observed mortality rate (OMR), expected mortality rate (EMR) and confidence intervals (CI) for RAMR.

Known as Expert Cardiac Medical Care, ECMC's comprehensive cardiac surgery program consists of the following services:

• cardiothoracic surgery
• invasive cardiac catherization
• non-invasive EKG/ECHO testing
• a dedicated cardiac care inpatient unit
• a dedicated cardiothoracic inpatient unit

Our current cardiothoracic surgeon is:

• John Bell-Thomson, M.D. (Dr. Bell-Thomson's SurgXL website)

General Heart Services

The Department of Cardiology staff includes experts who provide a high level of cardiac care in all areas of cardiovascular disease. The cardiology unit accepts referrals of patients with a wide range of cardiology conditions, including congestive heart failure; congenital (at birth) valve, muscle and coronary artery diseases; as well as arrhythmia (irregular heartbeat). The unit also performs pacemaker evaluations. The cardiac care facility consists of state-of-the-art diagnostic laboratories and a computerized coronary unit. Arrangements can be made for various types of echocardiography (ultrasound) testing, Holter monitoring (long-term recording of electrocardiographic signals), stress testing, interventional (insertion of an instrument or device) cardiology procedures and open-heart surgery.