AUSTIN (KXAN) — Texas has some of the best heart hospitals in the country, according to one list.
U.S. News and World Report published a list of “Best Hospitals for Cardiology, Heart & Vascular Surgery.” The publication’s website said it evaluated nearly 800 heart hospitals and ranked the top 50 that care for patients with challenging heart and vascular cases.
Four of those were in Texas.
“My team combs through records of the bills that hospitals send to the government to get paid,” Ben Harder, Chief of health analytics at U.S. News and World Report, explained. “And from those records of patient care, we can figure out which hospitals are good and what they’re good at.”
Harder said the team, mostly trained in in rigorous statistical methods, combed through millions of patient records to identify the strengths and weaknesses of each hospital.
“We evaluate hospitals in 15 different specialty areas, like heart and vascular care. Then we also look at 20 different procedures and conditions like heart attack care or heart failure or heart bypass surgery,” Harder said. “Very specific services that some hospitals provide, others may not provide, but we’ll evaluate all.”
Four Texas hospitals made the report, and they were in the top 30: Houston Methodist Hospital, Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center, UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, and Baylor Scott and White Heart Hospital in Plano.
Harder explained the list should only be used as a resource.
“We certainly don’t want these rankings to be a substitute for patients listening to their doctors’ and other healthcare providers’ medical advice. It’s very important that they get that guidance at an individual level, our rankings are intended to help them make a data-driven decision.”
