• Heart Center Quality Measures

    The Heart Center at Texas Children's Hospital is organized around the principle that success in pediatric and cardiac care is achieved by surrounding patients with the greatest available expertise at every point during their time at the hospital. For that reason, we have assembled a multidisciplinary team of highly skilled and experienced healthcare professionals who work exclusively with pediatric heart patients. These include dedicated pediatric cardiac surgeons, pediatric cardiac anesthesiologists, pediatric cardiologists, perfusionists, nurses, physician assistants and support staff. This approach has served our patients extremely well.

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    Hand Hygienehigher is better
    Cardiovascular Intensive Care
    2012-2013
    Preventing the spread of infection is a critical aspect of patient safety. The most important and effective safety measure at Texas Children's Hospital is to make sure our hands are clean before and after every patient encounter.
    Hand Hygienehigher is better
    Cardiac Inpatient Unit
    2012-2013
    Preventing the spread of infection is a critical aspect of patient safety. The most important and effective safety measure at Texas Children's Hospital is to make sure our hands are clean before and after every patient encounter.
    Surgical Site Infection Ratelower is better
    Per 100 Cardiac Surgeries
    2012-2013
    Most patients at Texas Children's Hospital who have surgery do well, but sometimes patients develop surgical wound infections. We have safe processes in place that reduce the risk of infection. Our goal is for no child to encounter a surgical site infection.
    Catheter Associated BSIlower is better
    Per 1000 Device Days
    2012-2013
    A central line catheter is a small plastic tube placed into a larger blood vessel. This catheter is used to deliver medications, to draw blood tests, and to monitor blood pressure. Bacteria has the potential to enter the bloodstream through this catheter and result in a central line infection (which can lead to a bloodstream infection or BSI) and an ill child. Texas Children's Hospital is continuously working to reduce the occurrence of central line infections. Our measures reflect overall rate of the Catheter Associated BSI in our cardiovascular intensive care unit.
    Overall Risk-Adjusted Ratelower is better
    Mortality Rate
    2007-2011
    Overall risk-adjusted mortality rate refers to the percent of patients who expire after congenital heart surgery or thoracic surgery while still in the hospital. Risk adjustment in congenital heart surgery is a widely used model to analyze outcomes in congenital heart surgery. The most common surgeries are stratified into six risk categories. Surgeries with higher risk are placed in higher categories with category six representing the greatest risk. The Heart Center compares itself to The Society of Thoracic Surgeons National Database with benchmark at 3.6%.
    Overall Satisfactionhigher is better
    Cardiovascular Intensive Care
    2012-2013
    At Texas Children's Hospital we survey patients who receive services so we can learn where we can improve our care. Our goal is for 100% of our patients and families to be satisfied with the care they receive here.
    Overall Satisfactionhigher is better
    Cardiac Inpatient Unit
    2012-2013
    At Texas Children's Hospital we survey patients who receive services so we can learn where we can improve our care. Our goal is for 100% of our patients and families to be satisfied with the care they receive here.
    Appointment Availabilitylower is better
    Cardiology Outpatient Clinic
    2012-2013
    We know that our patients want to be seen as soon as possible in our Cardiology Outpatient Clinic. This measure answers the question of how many days our patients wait for an appointment to the Cardiology Clinic. Our goal is for all patients to be seen in a timely manner.
    Cardiovascular and Thoracichigher is better
    Surgery Case Volume
    2007-2011
    The Congenital Heart Surgery Service performs a high volume and variety of procedures. Over 60% of all operations performed require the use of cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB). Our incidence of mechanical circulatory support post-cardiotomy is less than 1%. Click here to view the 2009 Congenital Heart Surgery Outcomes booklet.
    Cardiovascular and Thoracichigher is better
    Surgery Case Volume by Age
    2007-2011
    Age appropriate surgical planning and management allow us to achieve excellent outcomes in patients of all ages with a hospital mortality rate of less than 3% in all age categories.
    # Treadmillhigher is better
    Stress Tests Performed
    2012-2013
    A stress test allows the cardiologist to observe how the child's heart works during exercise on a treadmill or by using medication stress protocols. At Texas Children's Hospital our team has worked together to improve our efficiency and thereby have increased our capacity to perform 2 additional stress tests per day; a total of 520 additional procedures per year.