Wesley Healthcare
June 28, 2019

WICHITA – Wesley Medical Center has earned the distinguished and highly coveted 3-star quality rating from the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) for its AVR+CABG surgery program.

This is the third time in a row that Wesley has earned the highest recognition for its aortic valve replacement (AVR) surgery plus coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) surgery program. 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 in the United States and Canada. Historically, only 4%–7% of participants receive the three-star rating for AVR+CABG surgery. The latest analysis of data for AVR+CABG surgery covers a 3-year period.

"Receiving a 3-star rating is an incredible achievement ," said Bill Voloch, president and CEO of Wesley Healthcare. "It means Wesley is saving lives. Every day, this is the safest place to have heart surgery." The star rating is calculated using a combination of quality measures for specific procedures performed by an STS Adult Cardiac Surgery Database participant. The STS National Database was established in 1989 as an initiative for quality improvement and patient safety among cardiothoracic surgeons.

“A 3-star rating means that the outcomes at Wesley are the best possible in the region,” said Sanjay Khicha, MD, FACS, medical director of Cardiology and Thoracic Surgery, Wesley Medical Center. “It means we are a top-tier program in cardiac bypass surgery for outcomes and care.”

STS public reporting online enables STS participants to voluntarily report to each other and the public their heart surgery scores and star ratings. As part of the evaluation, STS followed outcomes and the data of patients who had cardiac bypass surgery plus aortic valve replacement at Wesley Medical Center. “STS has taken the lead in public reporting by providing easy-to-understand information on heart surgery outcomes,” said David Shahian, MD, chair of the Task Force on Quality Measurement. “Patients have a right to make informed decisions about choice of treatment and providers, and public reporting is one way to facilitate this.”

For more information about Wesley Healthcare and its services, please visit our home page. For more information on the ratings from the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, please visit Public Reporting.