MountainView Hospital has achieved a distinguished 3-star ranking for its Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR) program for its patient care and positive quality outcomes.
The 3-star ranking, which denotes the highest category of quality, comes from The Society of Thoracic Surgeons and the American College of Cardiology, for the time period ending Sept. 2021. This ranking places MountainView Hospital among the elite for TAVR heart care in the United States and Canada, representing the top 4 to 8 percent of all centers, depending on procedure.
A local expert has been leading the charge in guiding the program to this prestigious status. Las Vegas Heart Associates’ very own Jeffrey Levisman, MD, FACC, FSCAI, board-certified in Interventional Cardiology is the Medical Director of the TAVR Program. Dr. Levisman along with his colleagues are focused on providing high-quality patient care with the goal of long-term positive results. By offering advanced, state-of-the art, minimally invasive technology, along with expert clinical staff, many programs across the country work towards this important and highly-respected award. The TAVR program and procedure at MountainView hospital is multidisciplinary, including MountainView’s cardiothoracic surgeons, led by Dr. Deepak Malhotra, in addition to the hospital’s interventional cardiologists. The cardiothoracic surgeons and the heart team assist technically during cases. At a multidisciplinary heart conference surgeons and physicians discuss appropriate patients, with the goal of providing the best patient outcomes.
“We are excited to be recognized among the top TAVR hospitals in the country. We continuously strive to stay on the leading front of quality and innovation to ensure the best possible outcomes, even for the most complex patients,” said Dr. Levisman.
The STS star rating system is one of the most sophisticated and highly regarded overall measures of quality in health care, rating the benchmarked outcomes of cardiothoracic surgery programs across the United States and Canada. The star rating is calculated using a combination of quality measures for specific procedures.
Severe aortic stenosis is a narrowing of the aortic valve opening that does not allow normal blood flow. In elderly patients, severe aortic stenosis is sometimes caused by the build-up of calcium on the aortic valve’s leaflets. Over time the leaflets become stiff, reducing their ability to fully open and close. When the leaflets don’t fully open, the heart must work harder to push blood through the aortic valve to the body.
TAVR provides a unique option for patients to have a valve replacement without open heart surgery. It has become the primary approach to replace the valve for most patients with aortic valve stenosis.
This less invasive procedure allows a new valve to be inserted within the diseased aortic valve while the heart is still beating. Once the new replacement valve is expanded, it pushes the old valve out of the way and the replacement valve functions to regulate proper blood flow.
Dr. Levisman and Dr. Anthony Dota perform TAVR procedures at MountainView Hospital and are part of Las Vegas Heart Associates. Currently, they are accepting new patients at their practice located on the campus of the hospital at 2880 N. Tenaya Way, Suite 100, Las Vegas, NV 89128.