Tufts Medical Center Is One of the Top 10 Hospitals for Heart Transplants
Photo by Alex Lau
Boston hospitals are constantly bringing home awards, in everything from overall excellence to safety. The latest? Tufts Medical Center announced Tuesday that it’s one of the country’s top 10 hospitals for heart transplants.
Tufts performed 56 successful heart transplants last year, which, according to United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) data, is the 10th-highest number in the country, and the most of any hospital in New England. In 2015, by contrast, Tufts performed just 19 heart transplants.
Tufts’ banner year smashed the prior record for most heart transplants done at a New England hospital in one year—37—which was set by Brigham and Women’s Hospital way back in 1991. In July, Tufts also made news for performing four heart transplants in a single day.
“From cardiologists to surgeons to anesthesiologists, infectious disease specialists, nurses, advanced providers, perfusionists, technicians and administrators, every person involved with the program deserves credit for its unprecedented success,” Michael Wagner, Tufts’ president and CEO, said in a statement.
Tufts’ newfound success can be partially traced back to two high-profile additions: Chief of Cardiac Surgery Frederick Chen, and Surgical Director of the Advanced Heart Failure Program Gregory Couper, both of whom joined the hospital recently.
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, in California, paced the nation with 122 heart transplants in 2016, followed by Vanderbilt University Medical Center, in Tennessee, with 92. According to UNOS, hospitals nationwide performed more organ transplants in 2016 than during any year prior.
