Parkview Medical Center has a full service Cardiovascular Surgery Program.  Due to the fact that only some Colorado hospitals provide heart surgery services, Parkview feels that the data on AMI mortalities can be somewhat misleading. Of the 18 AMI deaths that Parkview had in 2006, 7 of those were patients who also underwent major heart surgery procedures. These 7 patients are recorded under the AMI and CABG data, which means that the death was captured in both categories for the same patient.

Parkview has a very intensive complication review process and each of the deaths was examined by a team of surgeons, administrators and quality data analysts. 5 of the 7 deaths were ruled as "last resort" attempts, and despite the very high risk of surgery, the patient requested the surgery even when it was explained that the patient?s chance of survival was low. Of the other 2 deaths, one was attributed to a patient whose religion prohibited blood transfusions. As an organization dedicated to respecting the rights of our patients and their healthcare decisions, we do not turn a gravely ill patient away just to make our data appear better. We have an excellent cardiac program and welcome any questions about our quality assurance. Medical Center