HealthGrades Identifies Nation's Top Hospital Organ Transplant Centers

A list of those hospitals with the best track record for survival and chances of receiving a donor organ has been released by HealthGrades, the nation's leading independent ratings organization.

HealthGrades annual evaluation of the nation's top-performing hospitals in organ transplantation includes clinical quality data, based on patient outcomes, for each of the 210 adult acute care hospitals that perform transplants. This information is available, free to the public, at HealthGrades.com and is intended to help patients in need of kidney, lung, heart or liver transplants.

About Transplantation
Since the early times, the novel idea of transplanting tissues and other body parts from one organism to the other has captured the imagination of successive generations.

"More than 108,000 patients are on a waiting list for an organ transplant in the U.S and it is imperative that patients have a resource to compare patient outcomes and other criteria at programs across the country," said HealthGrades' Rick May, MD. "HealthGrades' hospital ratings are based on objective patient outcomes, empowering patients to choose a program that gives them the best chance at survival."

The following data is displayed on HealthGrades.com and was calculated by the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients (SRTR) for all adult acute care hospitals in the U.S. with transplant programs:

One and three-year risk-adjusted patient survival;
One and three-year risk-adjusted graft survival;
The rate at which waitlisted patients receive transplants; and
Waitlist mortality.

Liver Transplantation - Facts, Contraindications, Procedure, Follow up, Complications & Prognosis
Liver transplantation is a surgical option for the treatment of liver failure where the diseased liver is replaced with a healthy one.

Hospitals with transplant programs received HealthGrades Transplant Excellence Awards if theyhad a statistically significantly higher three-year survival rate. Award recipients were also required to have waitlist mortality that was either not significantly different than expected or was significantly lower than expected based on SRTR calculations. Of the 210 hospitals evaluated, 20 hospitals received this award.

The recipients are as follows*:HealthGrades Kidney Transplant Excellence Award recognized 11 recipients out of 199 hospitals evaluated:

About Stem Cells
Encyclopedia section of medindia gives general info about Stem Cells

Sutter General Hospital
UC Davis Medical Center
Yale - New Haven Hospital
Tampa General Hospital
MCG Health Medical Center
Clarian Methodist Hospital
Ochsner Clinic Foundation
Boston Medical Center Corporation
New York - Presbyterian/Weill Cornell
Allegheny General Hospital
University of Washington Medical Center

HealthGrades Lung Transplant Excellence Award recognized 3 recipients out of 53 hospitals evaluated:

About Cord Blood
Encyclopedia section of medindia gives general info about Cord Blood

Shands Hospital at the University of Florida
Tampa General Hospital
University of Minnesota Medical Center – Riverside

HealthGrades Heart Transplant Excellence Award recognized 2 recipients out of 98 hospitalsevaluated:

Newark Beth Israel Medical Center
Temple University Hospital

HealthGrades Liver Transplant Excellence Award recognized 4 recipients out of 95 hospitals evaluated:

California Pacific Medical Center - Pacific
UCSF Medical Center
Cleveland Clinic
Saint Lukes Episcopal Hospital

Source-Eurekalert