Northwestern Memorial Hospital has been ranked best in the USA for survival of patients suffering heart failure, and second for survival of patients with heart attack and stroke.
First in the country for the lowest heart failure mortality rate, with a rate of 6.6%. The national average is 12.2%.
Second in the nation for the lowest heart attack mortality rate, with a rate of 9.9%. The national average is 14.1%.
Second in the nation for the lowest stroke death rate, with a rate of 9.4%. The national rate of stroke death for patients is 14.9%.
All figures are for 30-day time periods for Medicare patients, the common standard for hospital quality data.
Richard Bernstein, medical director of the Comprehensive Stroke Center at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, credited the high survival rates for the hospital’s stroke patients with coordinated team efforts across various parts of the hospital and broader health system.
For Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute’s heart failure program, Allen Anderson, medical director of the Center for Heart Failure, Chicago, USA, credited the survival rate in part to the creation of a specialised Bridge and Transition team.
“The care team visits patients throughout the hospital to identify those suffering from heart failure and treat them most effectively, whether they are in the early or most advanced stages of the disease,” said Anderson, who is also a professor of medicine-cardiology at Feinberg.
The Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute is part of the Northwestern Medicine health system, with multiple sites of care in Chicago and the region.