ATLANTA--St. Joseph’s Hospital has been named one of the top 100 cardiovascular hospitals in a national study by HCIA, Inc., a company that collects, manages and distributes comparative health care information.

“We are extremely honored that St. Joseph’s cardiovascular program has been recognized as one of the best in the country for its combination of quality and cost-containment,” said Mark Feldman, vice president of marketing and planning for the Catholic hospital. “This comes on the heels of our cardiac rehabilitation program being one of the first in the country to be awarded certification by the American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation for its Outpatient Cardiac Health and Rehabilitation.”

The study identified the best performing hospitals in each of two categories, open heart or coronary artery bypass graft surgery, and coronary angioplasty, or percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty.

Only 34 hospitals were among the top 100 hospitals for both open heart surgery and coronary angioplasty and St. Joseph’s was the only hospital in Atlanta to distinguish itself in both categories.

The study was based on a computerized review and analysis of more than 12 million Medicare cases using clinical and financial measures such as average length of stay, risk-adjusted complications and mortality rates and severity-adjusted costs per case.

The hospitals that made the top 100 list in the study had significantly lower mortality and complication rates than the national peer group and had average costs that were $3,000 below the group.

According to HCIA, patients undergoing open heart surgery at a top 100 cardiovascular hospital were 20 percent less likely on average to end up with a tracheostomy. Similarly, patients at the top 100 hospitals in the coronary angioplasty category were 50 percent less likely to have open heart surgery and the hospitals in this category performed twice as many coronary angioplasties at an average cost of 20 percent less than their peers.

Founded by the Sisters of Mercy in 1880, St. Joseph’s Hospital is Atlanta’s oldest and today is recognized as one of the leading acute-care, specialty-referral hospitals in the Southeast. The 346-bed facility includes cardiovascular, vascular, oncology, neurology, orthopedic, gastroenterology, surgical specialty centers, outpatient rehabilitation and primary care services. At the core of St. Joseph’s long tradition of service is its Catholic mission to improve the health and well-being of the communities it serves.