Heart Institute Outcomes

Higher is better

The more operations we do, the more experience we have, and experience is the key to good outcomes. STS considers ACH a high-volume surgical center with a large enough volume to ensure experience in treating all congenital cardiac lesions.

Lower is better

Cross-clamp time is the time in minutes during which the aorta is occluded (closed off) to allow surgical repair. During this time, oxygenated blood flow is stopped to the tissues being repaired. The lower the cross-clamp time, the lower the risk of complication.

Arkansas Children’s cross-clamp times are consistently shorter than the industry benchmark. This means our team has the skill to quickly and safely complete the surgical repair.

Lower is better

Less time in the hospital means more time at home with family. On average, our patient’s post-operative total length of stay across all categories is shorter at ACH compared to other national sites.

Higher is better

A long history of consistent volumes of cardiac catheterization (cath) procedures, including diagnostic, interventional, and electrophysiology cases, provide our teams with the right experience to ensure exceptional outcomes. Our team performs more than 600 cath lab cases each year.

Higher cases, lower mortality is better

ACH has some of the LOWEST mortality rates compared to other centers of similar size and operations performed.

STAT score is assigned to each surgical procedure. It is a tool designed to analyze risk for mortality based on the complexity of each case. This graph shows the number of overall cases performed per STAT category compared to the mortality that occurred. STAT 5 represents the most complex cases.

Higher is better

This information shows survival after surgical treatment of key benchmark operations over a 4-year period and compares the ACH experience to the STS average. ACH meets or exceeds survival outcomes in all key areas when compared to the STS average.