Medical Minute: OhioHealth Cardiac Surgery Recognized with 3-Star Society of Thoracic Surgeons Ratings

OhioHealth Riverside Methodist Hospital and OhioHealth Grant Medical Center have both earned a 3-star rating for the Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting (CABG) and Multi-Procedural Cardiac Surgery from the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) for 2025.

“A 3-star rating is a rating system generated by an organization called the Society of Thoracic Surgery, it’s a non-profit organization that started in the early 60s to which thoracic and cardiac surgeons are members,” Geoffrey Blossom, MD, OhioHealth cardiac thoracic surgeon said. “They have a data base that has been scrutinized and reviewed for years and every hospital in the county that has an open-heart surgery program submits their data to this organization.”

Dr. Blossom said the data is derived from people, that full-time generate this data. It’s accurate and reflective of results across the country, he went on to share.

“It’s an organization that provides this data publicly,” Dr. Blossom said. “It is not a social media situation, it’s not a for profit organization so for surgeons, this is our sort of gold standard for reporting.”

This rating system is based on quality results and patient outcomes. According to Dr. Blossom, the average is a 2-star rating and 10 percent of programs in the county are 3-star rated programs.

“It’s a great milestone to have achieved and again is reflective of high-quality care,” Dr. Blossom said.

Choosing a place to have open-heart surgery is a big decision, and a lot goes into that decision.

“When you’re discussing a place to have open-heart surgery, clearly it’s an emotional discussion for you and your family,” Dr. Blossom said. “When you do research and determining outcomes, this is probably the most accurate way to find a good program and make sure that you’re going to set yourself up for the best patient outcomes and recovery and long-term survival and low mortality rates.”

Successful patient outcomes and recovery come from several people and teams in the hospitals working together.

“In open-heart surgery your surgeon gets a lot of credit, but to be honest, it’s the behind-the-scenes people that really make even a bigger difference,” Dr. Blossom said. “For example, cardiac anesthesiology, we have a specialized team of anesthesiologists that just do our open-heart surgeries and they’re excellent and it makes a huge difference in the surgery itself and the perioperative care.”

He said they also have a dedicated team of assistants in surgery as well as an open-heart ICU team of nurses, who are incredibly talented and perform exceptionally well.

“We have an army of nurse practitioners that help manage these patients both immediately after surgery, during their recovery, and step-down time into the postoperative period,” Dr. Blossom said. “So, it clearly is a team effort, these people are invaluable and the amount of volume and experience that these people achieve in a high-volume institution is critical to good outcomes.”

As a healthcare system that continues to grow every single day, this recognition reflects not only the long-term success of these two hospitals, but also the overall strength and momentum of the organization as a whole.

“I think it validates the work and effort we put in in regard to patient safety, outcomes clinical recovery, and communication with both our providers and our referring doctors as well as our patients and their families,” Dr. Blossom said. “You can be assured that if you choose OhioHealth for your cardiac surgery care, that you’re going to get top-quality care which has been validated by our STS database and the amount of experience we have here on a day-to-day basis with our open-heart surgery teams.”

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