Awards & Distinctions

St. Francis Hospital, The Heart Center® is New York State’s only specialty designated cardiac center, offering one of the leading cardiac care programs in the nation. A member of Catholic Health Services of Long Island, the Hospital is recognized as an innovator in the delivery of specialized cardiovascular services in an environment where excellence and compassion are emphasized.

St. Francis also offers an outstanding program in non-cardiac surgery, including some of the most advanced technology and minimally invasive techniques available for vascular, prostate, ear-nose-throat (ENT), abdominal, oncologic, and orthopedic surgery. These are some of the distinctions and accolades earned by the Hospital:

• In the past 10 years, over 98,000 cardiac catheterizations, 37,000 angioplasties, and more than 17,000 open-heart surgeries have been performed at St. Francis Hospital.
• St. Francis has one of the highest caseloads of cardiac arrhythmia procedures in the nation, including pioneering work in radiofrequency ablation and pacemaker and defibrillator implantation.
• For the sixth consecutive year, U.S. News & World Report named St. Francis one of America’s best hospitals. In addition to cardiology and heart surgery, the magazine honored St. Francis once again as a leader in geriatrics and neurology and neurosurgery, as well as gastroenterology (July 2012).
• U.S. News & World Report also rated St. Francis high performing in six additional specialties: cancer, ear-nose-throat, nephrology, orthopedics, pulmonology, and urology, in its Metro Rankings (July 2012).
• St. Francis has consistently had the largest cardiac surgical volume in New York State since at least 1992, when the Department of Health began collecting, analyzing, and reporting cardiac outcomes, and its program has been recognized for its outstanding success rates more times than any other hospital in the New York metropolitan area (NYSDOH).
• St. Francis physicians performed the largest volume of percutaneous coronary interventions (angioplasties with stents) on Long Island and the Hospital was recognized for having one of the best success rates in the state (NYSDOH, March 2012).
• St. Francis Hospital has earned the Magnet designation for excellence in nursing services, an honor awarded to only 6 percent of American hospitals.
• Consumer Reports rated St. Francis the safest hospital in the New York City metropolitan area (March 2012).
• Recognized national leader in cardiac non-invasive imaging, including cardiac CT scanning, cardiac PET-CT scanning, cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (cardiac MRI), nuclear imaging, and three-dimensional echocardiography.
• The Hospital is a premier center for national clinical trials, such as CoreValve, eValve, CREST, and Symplicity, and studies using the full range of state-of-the-art cardiac imaging modalities to examine the underlying mechanisms of heart disease.
• The Hospital is the leading center on Long Island for catheter-based treatment of congenital heart defects.
• St. Francis offers a broad array of coronary, carotid and peripheral arterial angioplasty and stenting techniques, as well as abdominal aortic stenting.
• Accredited by The Joint Commission (2009-2012).