We are pleased to share with you the continued progress of the pediatric and congenital heart program of University Health System and UT Health San Antonio. Three years ago, our program moved to its new home at University Hospital. We are committed to having a program that focuses its resources and expertise towards the care of patients and families challenged by congenital heart disease. The program and concept has undergone a dramatic evolution with the opening of a dedicated inpatient and outpatient Children’s Heart Center at University Hospital in April 2017.
Our program has some of the best outcomes of any in the nation. Our surgical mortality rate for 2016 is the best we’ve achieved in over a decade at 1.42%. We are committed to focusing on excellence through a defined mechanism for patient and family centered care. This is achieved through our dedicated Pediatric and Congenital Cardiac Unit, a variable acuity unit staffed by physicians, nurses and ancillary-care providers who are committed to the care of families affected by congenital heart disease. Having a transparent approach to communication with our colleagues and, more importantly, with our patients and families is one of our keys to success.
In this document, we share the program’s recent highlights and quality improvement initiatives. We continue to see steady growth in our program across all spectrums of diagnostic and interventional care. This growth is largely the product of ongoing outreach clinics in El Paso, Laredo and the Rio Grande Valley. In addition, we continue to be recognized as a Congenital
Heart Disease Center of Excellence by insurance providers such as Aetna, Superior and Optum. We have led multi-institutional research projects to identify mechanisms of decreasing sternal wound infections and have published several articles in peer-reviewed journals. Members of our team continue to be actively involved with humanitarian medical care abroad and we continue to enjoy a rewarding relationship with HeartGift, an organization committed to bringing children from other countries to San Antonio for corrective heart surgery.
We hope to illustrate our commitment to being a regional and national leader in the care of patients with congenital heart disease. A committed partnership with University Health System, along with a focused directive to spread our approach to care within South and West Texas, creates a platform for continued growth and maturation of our program. Our responsibility is to care for families as if they were our own. Our obligation is thus not only to heal and treat diseased hearts, but to also support the family unit knowing that everyone’s heartbeat matters.
S. Adil Husain, MD
Chief – Pediatric Cardiothoracic Surgery
William Randolph Hearst Chair in Congenital Heart Disease
Surgeon In Chief – Pediatric Services – University Health System
Roozbeh Taeed, MD
Interim Chief – Pediatric Cardiology
Medical Director, Pediatric and Congenital Cardiac Unit
Josie Molina
Executive Director, Pediatric & Congenital Heart Program
Shannon Friesenhahn, BSN RNC-NIC
Nursing Director, Pediatric and Congenital Cardiac Unit