Salem, Mass. – North Shore Medical Center (NSMC) has received the highest rating from the Society of Thoracic Surgeons for its outstanding cardiothoracic clinical outcomes.

NSMC opened its cardiac surgery program in 2003 in collaboration with Massachusetts General Hospital. It is one of only three community hospitals selected by the Commonwealth to offer comprehensive cardiovascular care.

Since 1994, the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) has maintained a data base that tracks almost all cardiac surgery operations in the US. Participation in the data base, and reporting all results and outcomes helps cardiac surgeons to improve outcomes by comparing their individual hospitals against state and national averages. The STS Adult Cardiac Surgery Database receives outcome information from nearly 800 institutions across the country, with more than 3 million patient records in the database.

The Society of Thoracic Surgeons recently developed a comprehensive rating system that allows for comparisons regarding the quality of cardiac surgery among hospitals across the country. Only 15 percent of hospitals received the highest "3 star" rating. The ranking was extended to NSMC for overall performance as well as for its specific performance in coronary artery bypass graft surgery.