Quality and Clinical Excellence
Tradition of Innovation
Saint Joseph’s has long led the way in cardiovascular diagnosis and treatment, helping shape the modern era of medicine. In fact, HVI physicians are considered pioneers in the field.
Examples, from the 1950s to today:
- Saint Joseph’s Hospital began an era of innovations in the treatment of heart disease by performing the first hypothermic cardiac, or “frozen heart,” surgery in Georgia in 1950.
- A Saint Joseph physician developed the pump oxygenator or heart-lung machine.
- Saint Joseph’s performed the first open-heart surgery in Georgia and became the first hospital in the city to offer a coronary care unit in 1975.
- Saint Joseph’s doctors performed the first coronary angiogram in Atlanta and opened the first pacemaker clinic in the Southeast.
- Saint Joseph’s was the first hospital in the Southeast to successfully perform percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty.
- Saint Joseph’s was the first hospital in Georgia to implant an artificial heart into a human patient.
- Saint Joseph’s is the first hospital in Georgia to offer cardiac procedures using the da Vinci ® Surgical System.
- Saint Joseph’s is designated as the training site for the da Vinci® Robotic-assisted Surgical System for physicians from throughout the Southeast and from around the world.
- Saint Joseph’s physicians are among three to perform thoracic and abdominal aneurysm endographs in Atlanta.
Nursing Excellence
In addition, nursing care at the HVI is of the highest order in the country. As a Magnet™ hospital, Saint Joseph’s was among the first three in the nation to be recognized for its nursing excellence, remains in the top one percent of nursing organizations in the U.S., and is one of only three hospitals in the country to receive the Magnet™ designation three consecutive times.
National Recognitions
Saint Joseph’s commitment to perfection has earned numerous recognitions for quality. The list of public acknowledgements of Saint Joseph’s clinical excellence is long; here are just two of the most recent and distinguished:
- Solucient's rated Saint Joseph’s among its Top 100 Hospitals® for Cardiac and Vascular programs for the sixth year (2005).
- In 2007, for the fifth consecutive year, Saint Joseph’s earned distinction for clinical cxcellence, remaining in the top 5 percent of hospitals in the country for overall clinical services. Saint Joseph’s was also rated as “Best in Georgia” for cardiac, stroke and gastrointestinal and orthopaedic services by the nation’s leading health-care ratings company.
For more information about the Heart & Vascular Institute, call 404-851-5111.
