ST. FRANCIS HEART INSTITUTE RATES HIGH AGAINST NATIONAL STANDARDS

Rates of mortality, length of stay and complications at the St. Francis Heart Institute were "significantly lower" than the national standards for those categories in 2000, according to a report compiled by St. Francis Medical Center.

The report titled "A Demonstration of Outcomes" put the hospital's mortality rate at 1.56 compared to the national rate of 3 percent. This occurred despite the fact that the St. Francis' patients were clinically sicker than the national group.

The hospital's mortality rate for females undergoing bypass surgery was 1.6 percent, far below the national mortality rate of 4.15 percent.

Dr. John Mackel, the hospital's vice president for medical affairs, said it is unknown why women nationally have higher mortality rates than men for bypass surgery.

The report demonstrates that "you don't have to go to a big city," Mackel says. "There is excellent treatment right here."

The report was compiled by cardio-thoracic surgeon Dr. Edward Bender and compared St. Francis with statistics collected by the Society of Thoracic Surgeons.

The hospital's average length of stay for bypass surgery was five days compared to the national average of 7. Rates were unavailable for the complications category.

Another category the Heart Institute excelled in was "cross-clamp time," the crucial amount of time the surgeon spends "getting in there and doing his thing and getting out," Mackel said. The national median time is 90 minutes. The Heart Institute's time was 59.7 minutes.

The Heart Institute is one of only 150 hospitals in the country that perform the Batista Procedure, a technique that removes muscle from the beating heart. The procedure makes it possible for some people who have enlarged hearts to avoid a heart transplant. The Heart Institute's Dr. William Logue trained with Dr. Batista and now has performed about 15 of the procedures.

Mackel said The Batista Procedure is one of several pioneering techniques the Heart Institute performs.