By Jessica Tuggle

jtuggle@hometownnewsol.com

INDIAN RIVER COUNTY - Though it is only a few years old, the Heart Center at Indian River Medical Center is in the top 15 percent of all heart programs in the nation, hospital officials said.

According to a press release, the Heart Center at Indian River Medical Center in Vero Beach was awarded a triple-star achievement rating by the nation's leading cardiothoracic surgery organization, the Society of Thoracic Surgeons.

More than 900 hospitals, including leading academic medical centers such as Duke University in North Carolina and Emory University in Atlanta, voluntarily submit reports of cardiac surgery outcomes for analysis by the not-for-profit research organization.

"This validates our heart surgery program as one of the best in the United States," said Jeffery Susi, president and CEO of Indian River Medical Center in a press release.

"It is testimony to the skill and leadership of cardiovascular and thoracic surgeons Drs. Cary Stowe and Mark Malias, the expertise of cardiac anesthesiologists Dr. John Lindenthal and Geoffrey Wolf, and to the entire Heart Center team's passion for and commitment to providing top quality care," Mr. Susi said.

The STS database was started back in the 1980s and to date, has more than 3.5 million case records of surgical quality, appropriate medication, complications and death rates of the performance of coronary artery bypass graft surgery, the press release said.

The Heart Center opened in November 2006 and since then, contributed all case reports to the database, said Dr. Stowe.

The center provides a full range of cardiac services including vascular surgery, thoracic surgery, interventional cardiology and peripheral interventional procedures.

The Heart Center, which is affiliated with the Duke University Health System, has two, full state-of-the-art operating rooms to provide optimum treatment to patients, said Dr. Stowe.

"Heart diseases, especially heart attacks, happen suddenly. You could be sitting down at breakfast, it could be 4 a.m. or 9 p.m., and we have to be up and ready to perform surgery on any given day at anytime of the week," he said.

The two rooms allow surgeons the opportunity to treat an emergency case immediately, even though another patient may have an operation scheduled.

"I can't just leave a patient on the table, so having two rooms is an important safety factor for the people of Indian River County," Dr. Stowe said.

Earning the recognition is extremely important to the hospital and county residents because of the careful study that took place before the award.

"This is the first year that they classified the programs with three stars and we statistically and significantly perform at a higher level," said Dr. Stowe.

"We are performing at the upper 15 percent of hospitals in the country and that's not to say there's no good programs anywhere else, but we perform better than 85 percent of them and that's important," he said.

"You can go into a lot of hospitals and see some plaques on the wall with ratings, but the STS is the only legitimately recognized statistical database recognized by the U.S. government," said Dr. Stowe.

Patients can come to the hospital knowing the Heart Center has a proven track record of excellence and take confidence their treatment is in the best of hands, Dr. Stowe said.

"We obviously have a large elderly population and heart disease and cancer are major factors in that age group," he said.

According to the state department of health Web site, heart disease is the No. 1 leading cause of death in Florida

Betsy Whisman, marketing director for the hospital, said one thing that has set the center apart from other programs is the doctors' desire to jump right in.

"Dr. Stowe and his partner, Dr. Malias, don't just take easy cases," she said.

"Some programs ease into them, but what the doctors did from the beginning was complicated and complex," said Ms. Whisman.

The cases they accepted were high-risk but had a very high success rate, bringing the center patients from around the state to come for care.

Recently the 500th heart surgery was a patient from Okeechobee, Ms. Whisman said.

"Every day we are going to take care of our patients and be accountable on a year-to-year basis to maintain that level," said Dr. Stowe.

For more information about the services provided by the Heart Center, call (772) 226-4900, or visit www.irmc.cc.