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Virginia Heart Care Ratings Available

Posted on: Friday, 15 September 2006, 18:01 CDT

Health consumers can compare the quality of heart care at Virginia hospitals via the Internet or U.S. postal service.

Virginia Health Information, a non-profit organization, has compiled information that includes information on medical care for conditions like angina, heart attack and heart failure. Medical cardiac care mortality rates vary from less than 1 percent to greater than 5 percent.

Cardiac Care information is free to the public and may be found at the Web site vhi.org. For those without Internet access, VHI will mail information to those who call (877) VHI-INFO.

Open heart surgeries such as coronary artery bypass graft surgery and cardiac valve operations are performed at 19 Virginia hospitals. Readmission rates for patients who have invasive cardiac operations such as cardiac catheterization and pacemaker procedures range from 4.6 percent to 11.6 percent depending on patient age.

National studies have shown that hospitals and doctors who perform more heart surgery often have lower mortality rates. VHI's report color codes hospitals into groups based on volume with listings of how often they provide different kinds of cardiac medical and surgical care.

Source: United Press International

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