As a parent of a baby who needs heart surgery, you want to make the smartest decisions. You aim to choose the best surgeons and a hospital you can trust. Experience and outcomes make a difference.
At UVA Health Children's, your baby gets care at the #1 Children's Hospital in Virginia. If your child has surgery at UVA Health Children’s, they're more likely to survive surgery.
What the numbers mean: For the most complex congenital heart surgeries (also called STAT 5), the survival rate for children treated at UVA Health Children’s is 96.5%. The national average survival rate is 86%. Children who have one of these surgeries here are more likely to survive.
What the numbers mean: The Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) is a third party that keeps a database of outcomes for congenital heart surgeries at hospitals across the country. They use a measure called an expected-to-observed ratio (O/E). The lower a hospital’s expected-to-observed ratio, the better. A number under 1.0 means the hospital had fewer deaths than expected based on how difficult the procedure is.
For the most complex congenital heart surgeries (STAT 5), UVA Health Children’s ratio is 0.59. That means fewer children died from these procedures than STS expected. That is better than other hospitals in the region.
What the numbers mean: The same is true for UVA Health Children’s ratio of 0.93 for all congenital heart surgeries. Fewer of our patients died than STS expected.
UVA vs. National Averages for STAT Categories and Individual Procedures
| Surgery Type |
UVA Health Children's Survival Rate (Jan. 2017-Dec. 2020) |
National Average Survival Rate (Jul. 2016-Jun. 2020) |
UVA Health Children's Median Hospital Stay (Jan. 2017-Dec. 2020) |
National Average Median Hospital Stay (Jul. 2016-Jun. 2020) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| STAT 5 Surgeries | 96.5% | 87.8% | 28 Days | 33 Days |
| STAT 4 Surgeries | 95.8% | 93.9% | 16 Days | 16 Days |
| STAT 3 Surgeries | 98% | 98% | 8 Days | 8 Days |
| STAT 2 Surgeries | 98% | 98.6% | 7 Days | 7 Days |
| STAT 1 Surgeries | 100% | 99.6% | 4 Days | 4 Days |
| All Surgeries | 97.8% | |||
| Norwood Procedure | 96.2% | 84.8% | 28 Days | 37 Days |
| Aortic Arch Repair (Including VSD) | 97.1% | 97.1% | ||
| Coarctation of the Aorta Repair | 100% | 98.2% | 3 Days | 6 Days |
| Arterial Switch Surgery (With and Without VSD) | 97.4% | 97% | 10 Days | 13 Days |
| TAPVR Repair | 93.8% | 92.2% | ||
| Tetralogy of Fallot Repair | 100% | 98.9% | 7 Days | 7 Days |
| Complete Atrioventricular Septal Defect Repair | 100% | 98% | 8 Days | 9 Days |
| Glenn Procedure | 96.9% | 98% | 8 Days | 8 Days |
| Fontan Procedure | 97.9% | 99% | 11.5 Days | 10 Days |