UVA Children’s and the Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU (CHoR) are ranked among the top children’s hospitals in the nation by U.S. News and World Report.
To provide convenient access to quality cardiac surgery for children and families in Virginia, UVA Children’s and CHoR are teaming up to combine the knowledge and expertise of their cardiac surgeons, cardiac anesthesiologists, interventionalists, extra-corporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) specialists, nurses and support team members.
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This collaborative approach combines the number of surgical cases among the teams at both hospitals.
There is a strong correlation between the number of procedures a surgeon and hospital have done and the outcomes for the patients — the greater the number of procedures, typically the lower the complication rates.
“Congenital heart defects are the most common birth defect, occurring in 1 out of 100 live births. This regional collaboration brings together the Commonwealth’s two academic medical centers with the most skilled specialists in pediatric cardiac surgery to provide surgical care to hundreds of children when and where they need it,” said Art Kellermann, M.D., senior vice president for health sciences at Virginia Commonwealth University and CEO of VCU Health System.
James Gangemi, M.D., surgical director of pediatric congenital heart surgery and medical director of the pediatric ECMO program at UVA, says that their combined efforts ensure that no family needs to leave Virginia to have the best outcome for their child.