McKenzie-Willamette Medical Center’s Cardiac Program earns distinguished three-star rating

Congratulations to McKenzie-Willamette Medical Center, which has earned a distinguished three-star rating from The Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) for its patient care and outcomes in isolated coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) procedures. The three-star rating, which denotes the highest category of quality, places McKenzie-Willamette among the elite for heart bypass surgery in the United States and Canada. McKenzie-Willamette is one of only three cardiac programs in Oregon to earn the three-star rating and the only one in Lane County.

McKenzie-Willamette hosted a Three-Star Rating Celebration on Thursday, June 1st, at 8:00am in its Rogue Rooms to celebrate this achievement. There were presentations by Mayor Sean VanGordon and Cardiothoracic Surgeon Nicholas Engstrom, as well as opportunities for media to interview Mr. Engstrom and patients of the medical center.

The STS star rating system is one of the most sophisticated and highly regarded overall measures of quality in health care, rating the benchmarked outcomes of cardiothoracic surgery programs across the United States and Canada. The star rating is calculated using a combination of quality measures for specific procedures performed by an STS Adult Cardiac Surgery Database participant. Approximately 20% of participants receive the three-star rating for isolated CABG surgery. The latest analysis of data for CABG surgery covers a three-year period, from January, 2020, through December, 2022, and includes 233 participants. 

The STS National Database was established in 1989 as an initiative for quality improvement and patient safety among cardiothoracic surgeons. The database includes four components: the Adult Cardiac Surgery Database (ACSD), the Congenital Heart Surgery Database (CHSD), the General Thoracic Surgery Database (GTSD), and the mechanical circulatory support database (Intermacs). The STS ACSD houses approximately 6.9 million surgical records and gathers information from more than 3,800 participating physicians, including surgeons and anesthesiologists from more than 90% of groups that perform heart surgery in the United States. STS public reporting online enables STS ACSD participants to voluntarily report to each other and the public their heart surgery scores and star ratings.

McKenzie-Willamette Medical Center is a 113-bed community hospital accredited by The Joint Commission. In 2018, a $115 million expansion and renovation project enhanced services offered to the community. With Level III Trauma Center accreditation, the emergency department maintains a 30-minutes-or-less service pledge. McKenzie-Willamette offers comprehensive services through McKenzie Heart, Lung and Vascular Center including cardiology and cardiovascular surgery. Key hospital services are obstetrics, general surgery, orthopedics, radiology, rehabilitation, robotic surgery, telemedicine, and wound care. For more information, visit McKweb.com. McKenzie-Willamette Medical Center is owned in part by physicians.

The Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) is a not-for-profit organization that represents more than 7,600 surgeons, researchers, and allied health care professionals worldwide who are dedicated to ensuring the best possible outcomes for surgeries of the heart, lung, and esophagus, as well as other surgical procedures within the chest. The Society’s mission is to enhance the ability of cardiothoracic surgeons to provide the highest quality patient care through education, research, and advocacy.