West Hospital named among top 50 in the nation for cardiovascular care

HCA Florida West Hospital and HCA Florida West Cardiology Specialists have joined an elite group of hospitals from across the nation by being named one of the nation’s 50 Top Cardiovascular Hospitals^® by Premiere Fortune, a leading provider of data-driven analytics and solutions to improve the cost and quality of healthcare.

The 50 Top Cardiovascular Hospitals® study identifies U.S. hospitals that have achieved the highest performance on a balanced scorecard of performance measures. The 2025 50 Top Cardiovascular Hospitals® provided higher quality clinical care and were identified as being more efficient than their peers. If all U.S. hospitals’ cardiovascular service lines performed at the level of these study winners, more than 14,000 additional lives and over $1.5 billion could be saved, and over 28,600 additional bypass and angioplasty patients could be complication-free.

“To receive this recognition means our cardiovascular team of physicians, nurses, and colleagues can produce extraordinary results and can replicate those extraordinary results to achieve quality healthcare that is equal to the best hospitals in the nation,” said Gabe Bullaro, chief executive officer of HCA Florida West Hospital. “This recognition underscores the quality and compassionate care that our team is focused on delivering to each and every patient who chooses our hospital for their care.”

The primary purpose of the Premiere Fortune™ 50 Top Cardiovascular Hospitals® program is to inspire hospital and health system leaders to pursue higher performance and deliver added value to patients and communities. The program leverages transparent, nonbiased data to help inform strategies for sustained performance. Organizations do not apply to participate in the study, and award winners do not pay to market their honor.

To create the Top 50 Cardiovascular Hospitals list, Premier/Fortune evaluates cardiovascular disease cohorts including heart attack, heart failure, coronary artery bypass graft and percutaneous coronary interventions.

Each cardiovascular disease group is evaluated using a set of balancing measures that encompass hospital clinical outcomes, cost and process efficiency, and patient experience. “To enhance our culture of safety, we have implemented advanced technologies to help ensure that we are delivering compassionate care in the safest environment possible,” said David Woodard, M.D., cardiologist at HCA Florida West Hospital. “We are also dedicated to continuous quality improvement initiatives which challenge our teams as they strive for excellence in developing highly reliable processes.”

Transforming the health care experience has become an important focus at HCA Florida West Hospital. The vision is for highly competent professionals to work in a collaborative environment to provide patient and family-centered care using evidence-based clinical practice standards. This collaborative team of nurses, physicians, support staff, and volunteers are all committed to the patient and family-centered model of care which has resulted in consistently high patient experience scores. In addition, the HCA Florida West Hospital culture of safety and safe practice is embedded throughout the entire organization.

“I see the dedication, skill, and compassion our team brings to every patient. Being recognized as one of the top 50 hospitals for heart care is a true testament to the unwavering commitment of our entire cardiovascular team,” said Dr. Woodard. “This achievement fills me with pride, knowing that our efforts are making a real difference in the lives of those who trust us with their heart health.”

This year, based on comparisons between the study winners and a peer group of similar hospitals that were not winners, the analysis found that the winners of the top 50 cardiovascular® programs delivered better outcomes while operating more efficiently and at a lower cost. Compared to non-winning hospitals, this year’s winners had:

• 25 percent fewer heart attack (AMI) deaths and 66 percent fewer coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) deaths
• 30 percent fewer percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) and 19 percent fewer CABG patients with complications
• Higher 30-day survival rates for heart attacks (AMI), heart failure (HF) and CABG patients (0.4 to 1.2 percentage points higher)
• Lower 30-day readmission rates for heart attack (AMI), heart failure (HF) and CABG patients (0.2 to 0.5 percentage points lower)
• Shorter average lengths of stay between patient groups – 0.5 for AMI, 0.4 for HF, 0.3 for PCI and one full day for CABG
• $1,386 to $6,974 less in total costs per patient case (the smallest dollar-amount difference was for HF and the largest was for CABG)
• A better patient experience at top performing hospitals compared to the remaining peer hospitals as measured by patient satisfaction surveys.

“This recognition is only the starting point of what we are capable of and plan on achieving at HCA Florida West Hospital in delivering the highest quality cardiology care to our patients and this region”, said Dr. Woodard.

If you would like to learn more about cardiovascular services from one of the top 50 cardiovascular programs in the nation, we invite you to reach out to the HCA Florida West Cardiology Specialists at (850) 969-7979.