The annual report, released last week, provides mortality rates for the three-year period 1999-2001 for the 39 hospitals and all of the individual cardiologists across the state who perform Percutaneous Coronary Interventions (PCI), the minimally invasive procedure commonly known as angioplasty that clears blockages in the coronary arteries that provide blood flow to the heart muscle.
The risk-adjusted mortality rate for the 6,028 angioplasty cases at Mount Sinai during the three-year period was 0.58 percent, lowest among the city's major hospitals. And risk-adjusted mortality for 338 emergency angioplasies performed at Mount Sinai during the three-year period was 2.00 percent, significantly lower than the statewide average. Mount Sinai was the only hospital in New York City to achieve that distinction in emergency cases, as indicated in the report by a coveted double-star notation of excellence.
Dr. Sharma, director of interventional cardiology at Mount Sinai's Zena and Michael A. Wiener Cardiovascular Institute and the Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Center For Cardiovascular Health, performed 3,100 angioplasty procedures during the three-year reporting period, more than any other cardiologist in the state. And he was the only one whose risk-adjusted mortality rates were below the state average for both non-emergency cases (0.12 percent) and non-emergency and emergency cases combined (0.26 percent).