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Cardiovascular Surgery Outcomes

Nationally ranked by U.S. News & World Report

USNWR Cardiology

Families choose Children’s Mercy because of our extensive experience, knowledgeable and personal care providers, and innovative research that translates into results. Our outcomes—the statistics that track how kids do after surgery—are one of the best ways to show how relentlessly our doctors are working to improve the lives of kids with heart conditions.

The team at the Children's Mercy Ward Family Heart Center strives to provide the best possible pediatric heart-surgery outcomes for our patients. Listed below are our results compared to the national standard* for various procedures.

* This data comes from the Spring 2019 Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) Congenital Heart Surgery Database Report and includes procedural data from Jan. 1, 2015 through Dec. 31, 2018.

Children's Mercy is an American College of Surgeons Verified Center

Highest level of surgical care

Children’s Mercy is one of only 30 locations in the nation to be verified by the American College of Surgeons as a Level 1 Children’s Surgery Center.

Outcomes by cardiovascular procedure at four years

Four-year Outcomes by STS Benchmark Operation

Four-year Median Post-Operative Length of Stay Days by STS Benchmark Operation

Four-year Risk Stratified Outcomes by STAT Score

STAT Score Number of Children's Mercy Cases Children's Mercy Survival STS Survival
1 650 100% 99%
2 308 99% 98%
3 109 97% 96%
4 139 93% 92%
5 64 86% 85%

Bold = Greater or equal to STS national average.

STS Congenital Heart Surgery Data Summary Participant Outcomes Report Period for 1/1/2019-12/31/2022.

Stories

Heart transplant: Hannah's story

Fifteen year old Hannah could pretend her heart wasn’t a problem during marching band practice by “fake playing” as she paraded around the field. But eventually, the cardiomyopathy that plagued her family forced her off the field and into a hospital bed. There, she could only wait for a donor heart to save her life. Hannah became the first heart-transplant patient at Children's Mercy.