Our outcomes

Overall volumes | Volumes and outcomes by procedure | How we compare to other centers | Patient experience | Additional resources

High volumes and top outcomes

Our heart specialists are recognized leaders in treating children with complex congenital heart problems. As our reputation continues to expand across the United States, more families are choosing the Herma Heart Institute to treat their child's heart condition.

We consistently report some of the best surgical outcomes for even the most complex types of heart disease, based on reporting data from the Society of Thoracic Surgeons. We continue to be among the highest volume congenital heart surgery programs in the nation, performing over 300 open-heart surgeries and over 550 total procedures per year. Research shows that top-ranked programs have higher volumes and tend to have higher success rates.

How our outcomes compare to other centers

Surgical outcomes and volumes for benchmark procedures

Outcomes data is available for many specific heart surgery procedures performed at the Herma Heart Institute. Below are the survival rates for the ten benchmark operations the Society of Thoracic Surgeons includes in their database of reporting hospitals. For information about other procedures, ask your physician, contact us online or call us at (414) 266-2380.

• Surgical survival for arterial switch operation
• Surgical survival for atrioventricular canal repair
• Surgical survival for coarctation of the aorta
• Surgical survival for the Fontan procedure
• Surgical survival for the Glenn procedure
• Surgical survival for the Norwood procedure
• Surgical survival for Tetrology of Fallot
• Surgical survival for transposition of the great arteries
• Surgical survival for truncus arteriosus
• Surgical survival for ventricular septal defect 

How our outcomes compare to other centers

The Herma Heart Institute offers excellent cardiac surgery outcomes for patients with needs that range from routine to the most complex, as outlined in the graphic that follows. Our program consistently outperforms when it comes to congenital heart surgery outcomes for even the most complex types of heart disease, as evaluated by the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS).

Data shown is that most recently released by the Society for Thoracic Surgeons and is “risk adjusted,” meaning that it factors in how complex a surgery is, which may impact the risk to the patient. For hospitals like Children’s that treat the most complicated cases, risk adjustment allows a more realistic comparison of our outcomes (see blue circles) against the national aggregate of reporting hospitals (see gray circles).

Note: Data is provided from the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS). New data is not available beyond June 2019, as STS is in the process of refining their reporting methodologies. Hospitals are also limited in providing updated data due to the demands of the COVID-19 pandemic.

STAT categories for each type of congenital heart surgery

For details on what surgeries typically fall into each STAT category, please access the following article: O’Brien SM, Clarke DR, Jacobs JP, Jacobs ML, et al. (2009) An empirically based tool for analyzing mortality associated with congenital heart surgery. The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery. Link

Interested in learning more about STS and how to interpret the data? Read Conquering CHD's breakdown of STS data and reporting.

STAT 1

Atrial septal defect (ASD) repair | Aortic stenosis, subvalvar, repair | Repair of partial or intermediate AV canal | Ventricular septal defect (VSD) repair

STAT 2

Coarctation of the aorta repair | Fontan procedure | Glenn procedure (bidirectional) | Tetralogy of Fallot repair

STAT 3

Arterial switch operation (ASO) | Atrioventricular canal (AV) repair | Pulmonary artery reconstruction

STAT 4

Aortic arch repair ASO + VSD | Heart transplant | Total anomalous pulmonary venous return repair (TAPVR)

STAT 5

Transposition of the great arteries repair | Norwood procedure | Truncus + interrupted aortic arch (IAA) repair  

Patient experience

We want our patients and families to have the best care experience possible. To continue to provide excellent care, we ask our guests to fill out a survey rating their care experience. The rating scale ranges from 0 to 10 where 0 is the worst experience and 10 is the best. We strive to achieve a 9 or 10 rating from every patient and family that chooses our care. We are proud that over 90% of our patients rate their experience as a 9 or 10.

More information on surgical outcomes

What do nationally respected experts say about measuring quality and the quality of heart care at Children's Wisconsin and similar heart centers? Here are just a few of the resources that may surface as you learn more about your child's condition and treatment options.

• Questions to ask your child's heart center 
• Conquering CHD's Hospital Navigator
• “Volumes and transparency: Why they matter to pediatric heart patients”, childrenswi.org, May, 2019
• STS Congenital Heart Surgery Public Reporting, sts.org 
• Making sense of congenital heart surgery data, conqueringchd.org
• "Pediatrics: Cardiology & Heart Surgery Scorecard – Children's Wisconsin," U.S. News and World Report, June 2018
• "Transparency and Public Reporting in Congenital and Pediatric Cardiac Surgery | Expert Analysis," ACC.org, June, 2015
• "Is your pediatric heart hospital keeping secrets? We have answers," CNN.com, June 2015