Quality and Outcomes
Doernbecher Children’s Hospital is dedicated to giving your child and family the highest-quality care. As part of our commitment to excellence and transparency, we’re pleased to share information on outcomes. Our heart surgery outcomes are on par with the averages from across North America, and our hospital stays are significantly shorter.
Culture of excellence
We are proud members of the National Pediatric Cardiology Quality Improvement Collaborative.
NPC-QIC is a network of more than 65 leading U.S. pediatric cardiology care centers that are dedicated to improving outcomes for children with congenital heart disease. The network is particularly focused on improving “interstage” outcomes (between a first and second surgery) for infants with single ventricle defects.
As part of our culture of excellence, we also formally recognize employees for outstanding service beyond their normal duties.
Heart surgery outcomes
Doernbecher is among about 120 pediatric hospitals, all but two in North America, to voluntarily report congenital heart surgery statistics to the International Society of Thoracic Surgeons. The STS is the recognized leader in efforts to improve outcomes for surgeries on the heart, lungs, esophagus and other areas in the chest. As part of that, the society keeps a database of statistics.
Survival rates reflect patients who survived at least 30 days after surgery and who were discharged from the hospital. Doernbecher’s statistics include only surgeries tracked by the STS.
Please note that every case is different. Doernbecher’s numbers cannot predict the outcome for any one child. Some categories also have only a few cases, which can significantly skew the survival rate.
If you have questions or concerns about your child’s unique condition, the heart care team at Doernbecher would be happy to talk with you. Families can call us at 503-346-0640. Referring providers can reach us at 503-346-0644.
Overall survival, July 2014-June 2018
| Number of surgeries | Survival rate |
Doernbecher | 753 | 97.2% |
STS | 92,588 | 97.1% |
Survival rates by type of surgery, July 2014-June 2018
Number of surgeries | Survival rate | |
Doernbecher | 34 | 97.1% |
STS | 3,856 | 98.6% |
| Number of surgeries | Survival rate |
Doernbecher | 53 | 100% |
STS | 7,419 | 99.4% |
| Number of surgeries | Survival rate |
Doernbecher | 37 | 97.3% |
STS | 4,831 | 98.8% |
| Number of surgeries | Survival rate |
Doernbecher | 30 | 96.7% |
STS | 3,238 | 97.4% |
| Number of surgeries | Survival rate |
Doernbecher | 16 | 100% |
STS | 1,870 | 97.9% |
| Number of surgeries | Survival rate |
Doernbecher | 6 | 100% |
STS | 811 | 95.3% |
Days in the hospital
Doernbecher patients, on average, spend far fewer days in the hospital than the STS average. The median is the point at which half of patients stayed less time and half more.
| Off-bypass coarctation | VSD | TOF | Complete AVC | ASO | ASO + VSD | Glenn | Fontan | Truncus | Norwood |
Doernbecher | 5.0 | 4.0 | 6.0 | 7.0 | 9.0 | 13.0 | 6.0 | 9.0 | 17.5 | 17.0 |
STS | 12.0 | 9.2 | 11.6 | 17.3 | 17.0 | 19.3 | 14.4 | 13.6 | 26.9 | 48.9 |
Survival by surgery category, July 2014-June 2018
The Society of Thoracic Surgeons and European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery use STAT categories to group surgeries by risk of mortality. Categories are on a five-tier scale: STAT Category 1 is associated with surgeries that have the least risk, STAT Category 5 with surgeries that have the most. The categories are based on data from tens of thousands of surgeries.
| Doernbecher survival rate | STS survival rate |
STAT 1 | 100% | 99.6% |
STAT 2 | 98.7% | 98.5% |
STAT 3 | 98.9% | 97.7% |
STAT 4 | 91.3% | 93.6% |
STAT 5 | 81.8% | 85.6% |