As a parent of a child with a heart condition, you expect the highest quality care possible for your child. You want the most experienced team available.
At UVA Health Children's, our entire team works to continuously improve the care we provide to children with heart disease. U.S. News & World Report consistently ranks our children's heart care among the top 50 in the nation.
In 2024-2025, U.S. News & World Report ranked UVA Health Children’s heart care as “excellent” in, among other topics:
- Ability to prevent infections throughout hospital
- Congenital heart care
- Heart transplant
- Advanced clinical services
- Clinical support services offered
- Advanced technologies available
- Full-time subspecialists available
- Commitment to best practices
- Commitment to quality improvement
- Adoption of health information technology
- Help for families
Our Heart Care: Survival and Median Length of Stay Outcomes
According to data from the Society for Thoracic Surgeons (STS), our survival rates are better than or are close to national averages across all five STAT categories. Our median length of stay is also significantly shorter than the national average across the five categories.
"STAT" is a tool that measures the risks for mortality associated with some heart surgeries. Surgeries in STAT 1 are less complex and have the lowest risks for mortality. The surgeries get more complex and risky as you go up on STAT levels.
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 |
Systemic to Pulmonary Shunt | 95.6% | 92.3% | ||
Pulmonary Artery Banding | 100% | 91.5% | ||
Heart Transplant | 97.5% | |||
All Infant Stage 1 (Norwood/Shunt/Band) | 96.7% |