Methodist Healthcare System | Keeping Well | Winter 2016

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METHODI ST CHI LDREN’ S
HEART INST I TUTE
Healing
little hearts
Four years ago, Persayus Adrianny
Witherspoon was born with a hole in her
heart, or patent ductus arteriosus (PDA).
In addition, little Persayus has Down
syndrome. At only a few months old, she
had to undergo open-heart surgery, which
her mother, Alexandria Witherspoon, says
terrified her. The only thing that put her
mind at ease was the fact that Persayus
was going to have her surgery at the
Methodist Children’s Heart Institute at
Methodist Children’s Hospital.
John P. Kupferschmid, MD, a pediatric
cardiothoracic surgeon, and his team went
to work on repairing Persayus’ heart. Today,
she is a rambunctious 4-year-old, and she
and her mom thought it appropriate to for-
mally thank Kupferschmid; JatinPatel,MD,
her pediatric cardiologist; and the operating
room teamat Methodist Children’s Hospital.
Persayus and her mom organized a
thank-you party for their heart team, where
they presented them with ornaments and
framed thank-you letters.
The Methodist Children’s Heart In-
stitute features a multidisciplinary team
of experienced board-certified pediatric
cardiologists and cardiovascular surgeons
dedicated to complex congenital cardiac
and thoracic diseases, from prenatal di-
agnosis through adulthood. Methodist
Children’s Heart Institute performs a com-
plete range of congenital cardiac surgical
procedures, including neonatal and infant
heart surgery, such as Persayus had; single
ventricle and hypoplastic left heart syn-
drome repair; arrhythmia surgery; beating
heart surgery; cardiac failure intervention;
and mechanical support.
Metropolitan Methodist Hospital, a Center City hospital, and
Northeast Methodist Hospital, a Northeast San Antonio hospi-
tal, both campuses of Methodist Hospital, were the only ones
in their areas to receive a top grade in safety.
Both were honored with an “A” grade in the fall 2015 update
to the Hospital Safety Score, which rates how well hospitals
protect patients from accidents, errors, injuries and infec-
tions. The Hospital Safety Score is compiled under the guid-
ance of the nation’s leading experts on patient safety and
is administered by The Leapfrog Group, an independent
industry watchdog. The first and only hospital safety
rating to be analyzed in the peer-reviewed Journal of Patient
Safety, the score is designed to give the public information they
can use to protect themselves and their families.
A top priority “Our caregivers work together to provide care
in the safest manner,” says Jaime Wesolowski, president and
CEO for Methodist Healthcare System. “The ‘A’ score earned
by Northeast Methodist Hospital and Metropolitan Methodist
Hospital represents our staff ’s diligence in making safety a top
priority in patient care.”
“As patients begin to take a more active role in selecting where
to receive health care, it has never been more important to focus
on hospital safety and transparency,” says Leah Binder, President
and CEO of Leapfrog. “The ‘A’ hospitals, including Northeast
Methodist Hospital and Metropolitan Methodist Hospital, are
helping us to raise the standards of health care nationwide. We
offer our congratulations and hope the hospitals will continue to
strive for an ever-increasing level of excellence in patient safety.”
How hospitals are graded Developed under the guidance of
Leapfrog’s Blue Ribbon Expert Panel, the Hospital Safety Score
uses 28 measures of publicly available hospital safety data to
produce a single A, B, C, D or F score, representing a hospital’s
overall capacity to keep patients safe from preventable harm.
First in safety
Two Methodist Healthcare hospitals
awarded “A” grade for patient safety in
Leapfrog’s fall 2015 Hospital Safety Score
More than 2,500 U.S. general hospitals were assigned scores in
October 2015, with 773 hospitals receiving an A grade.
The Hospital Safety Score is fully transparent, offering a full
analysis of the data and methodology used in determining grades
on the website. Patients can also review their hospital’s past
safety performance alongside its current grade on the Hospital
Safety Score site, allowing them to determine which local hospi-
tals have the best track record in patient safety and which have
demonstrated consistent improvement.
To see Methodist Healthcare’s scores as they compare na-
tionally and locally, and to find safety tips for patients and
their loved ones, visit the Hospital Safety Score website at
. Local hospitals’ scores are also
available on the free mobile app at
W I N T E R 2 0 1 6 K E E P I N G W E L L 7
N E W S , V I E W S & T I P S M E T H O D I S T H E A L T H C A R E
Heart attack survivor Rick McCormick is alive today be-
cause of a tiny heart pump known as the Impella.
McCormick’s physician, Nandish Thukral, MD, per-
formed a procedure using this catheter-based heart pump,
which pulls blood from the left ventricle through an inlet
area near the tip and expels blood from the catheter into
the ascending aorta. The pump can be inserted via a stan-
dard catheterization procedure (in the cath lab) through
the femoral artery in the leg, into the ascending aorta,
across the valve and into the left ventricle.
“This minimally invasive procedure can be used on
some of the sickest of patients without having to open up
their chests,” explains Thukral. “The San Antonio com-
munity deserves the best therapies available.”
The Impella heart pump can be used during elective
and urgent high-risk coronary interventions. The device
moves 2.5 liters of blood per minute, assisting the left
ventricle during procedures involving temporary coro-
nary blockages that would otherwise be too taxing on the
already weak heart. The tiny Impella is intended for up
to six hours of use, but the indication allows the clinical
team to decide to keep the patient on it for longer.
World’s smallest
heart pump saves
heart attack patients
The McCormick family, with Rick at center, with Nandish Thukral,
MD, the cardiologist who helped save Rick’s life using the Impella
Heart Pump.
Alexandria Witherspoon helps her
daughter, Persayus, hang special
heart-shaped ornaments on the tree.