Bethesda North Hospital Receives Prestigious STS Three-Star Rating

Cincinnati, OH (November 17, 2022) – TriHealth Bethesda North Hospital 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 Bethesda North Hospital among the elite for heart bypass surgery in the United States and Canada.

The STS star rating system is one of the most sophisticated and highly regarded overall measures of quality in healthcare, rating the benchmarked outcomes of cardiothoracic surgery programs across the United States and Canada. The star rating is calculated by using a combination of quality measures for specific procedures performed by an STS Adult Cardiac Surgery Database participant.

Approximately 20 percent of participants receive the three-star rating for isolated CABG surgery.

“The Society of Thoracic Surgeons congratulates STS National Database participants who have received three-star ratings,” said David M. Shahian, MD, chair of the Task Force on Quality Measurement. “Participation in the Database and public reporting demonstrates a commitment to quality improvement in health care delivery and helps provide patients and their families with meaningful information to help them make informed decisions about health care.”

“TriHealth is committed to investing in the medical personnel, equipment, and infrastructure necessary to ensure patients in and around Cincinnati can receive quality cardiac care. We are grateful the Society of Thoracic Surgery has recognized our efforts with the highest possible quality rating for coronary artery bypass grafting for the last three-and-a-half years that our service has been integrated at Bethesda North Hospital,” said Trey Brunsting MD, board certified cardiothoracic surgeon, TriHealth Heart Institute member and co-director of Cardiothoracic Surgery Quality.

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, the Congenital Heart Surgery Database, The General Thoracic Surgery Database, and the mechanical circulatory support database. The STS ACSD houses roughly 6.9 million surgical records and gathers information from more than 3,800 participating physicians, including surgeons and anesthesiologists from more than 90 percent of groups that perform heart surgery in the U.S. STS public reporting online enables STS ACSD participants to voluntarily report to each other and the public their heart surgery scores and star ratings.