Nationwide Children’s Hospital has been designated an OptumHealth Center of Excellence for Pediatric Heart Transplant, joining Cleveland Clinic as the only such centers in the state of Ohio. In 2008, The Heart Center at Nationwide Children’s Hospital was recognized as an OptumHealth Center of Excellence in Congenital Heart Disease, and was re-designated in the subspecialty this year.
The OptumHealth Centers of Excellence network of elite programs was developed by identifying “best practice” specialty programs throughout the United States. These centers provide patients and case managers with access to cost-effective, high-quality pediatric health care.
Additionally, Nationwide Children’s was recognized by Aetna as an Institute of Excellence in Pediatric Congenital Heart Surgery, in which the hospital met enhanced quality review criteria.
The Heart Center at Nationwide Children’s Hospital is a world-class diagnostic, treatment and research facility for pediatric and adult patients with all forms of congenital heart disease and acquired cardiomyopathy. The innovative spirit of the cardiothoracic surgeons and interventional cardiology teams at The Heart Center came together again to bring the technology first developed in the first-of-its-kind Hybrid Catheterization Suites to a state-of-the-art operating suite, opened in 2007.
The heart transplant program at Nationwide Children’s received national accreditation from the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) in December 2002 to perform heart transplants, and performed its first heart transplant in April 2003. Heart transplants are available for end-stage cardiac failure unresponsive to medical therapy.
In addition to UNOS accreditation, all thoracic transplant programs at Nationwide Children’s are approved by the Ohio Department of Health and Human Services and accepted into the Ohio Solid Organ Transplant Consortium.