Edward Hospital tops in state for heart services

The outcome of heart problems can be quite black and white.

“They either fix you or you die,” said Tom Siok, a 64-year-old South Barrington resident who has survived four heart-related surgeries, three of them at Naperville's Edward Hospital.

Edward Hospital was ranked first in Illinois for cardiology services by the independent health care ratings organization HealthGrades in a national study released last week. And for patients, that basically means the hospital has a strong track record of fixing patients so conditions such as heart attacks and heart failure do not cause them to die, said Dr. Vincent Bufalino, Edward Hospital's medical director of cardiovascular services.

“It means that people can be comfortable, that they can get university-level care in the suburbs,” Bufalino said. “What we're trying to do is provide not only efficient and effective care, but high-quality care.”

But for Siok, Edward Hospital wasn't the closest to home.

“We decided on Edward because of their reputation, their expertise and their convenience to get to and from, even though I live in South Barrington, so it's 29 miles from my house to that hospital,” Siok said. “The coaching and the care that I got helped me through a lot.”

Edward Hospital provides focused care in two areas designed specifically for heart treatments: Edward Cardiovascular Institute, which opened in 1993, and Edward Heart Hospital, which opened in 2002 and expanded in 2007.

And the hospital's ranking as first in the state for cardiology services is a shared honor for paramedics, emergency room doctors and surgeons alike, Bufalino said.

“An important aspect of this is it's clearly a team award. This is really about the entire cardiology experience,” Bufalino said. “It's a validation that focused care works.”

The annual HealthGrades Hospital Quality in America study analyzed patient outcomes from Medicare hospitalization records between 2007 and 2009 at nearly 5,000 hospitals in the nation to determine mortality rates for different conditions and rank hospitals based on those rates.

Aside from its first-in-Illinois ranking for cardiology services, Edward placed in the top 5 percent in the nation in three categories: cardiology services, overall cardiac services and coronary interventional procedures. The national rankings further recognize the hospital's ability to keep patients' hearts beating, Bufalino said.

And that's something Siok, who had has most recent surgery at Edward in May to repair a split in a vein coming out of his heart, said he appreciates.

“It's hard to believe in less than six months,” he said, “I'm back to living life like I always have.”