Quality and Outcomes Reports - Herma Heart Center

Surgical Volume - by Age at Time of Operation

Why we measure it - Research shows that physicians and hospitals that treat a large number of patients tend to provide better care and have improved outcomes for treatments and procedures.

What this means - Herma Heart Center consistently performs more than 700 congenital heart operations a year, making it among the largest programs in the country. A majority of our heart patients are younger than 1 year of age. In addition, many patients outside the state choose our care every year.

About the data - This data reflects all patients with a surgical heart procedure in calendar years 2007-2010. This data is submitted to external databases for benchmarking purposes.

Related dimensions of care:

What we're doing to provide the best care:

  • We have the only cardiothoracic surgeons in the state of Wisconsin with American Board of Thoracic Surgery Certificates in Congenital Heart Surgery.
  • Children's Hospital is one of a few hospitals in the country to use a Berlin Pediatric Heart - a new artificial heart - to bridge children to heart transplantation. Similar technology also is used at the hospital, but the Berlin Pediatric Heart is smaller and better able to sustain small children.
  • We expanded our clinic space and added cardiac critical care beds in the hospital tower.
  • We offer many outreach clinics and surgical sites to reduce the number of trips many families need to make to our Milwaukee hospital location. Our specialists travel to or are located in several cities throughout Wisconsin and in Vernon Hills, Illinois to provide care closer to where our patients live. In addition to the main location in Milwaukee, other clinic locations in Wisconsin are located in New Berlin, Racine, Kenosha, Fond du Lac, Green Bay, and Neenah. We also have an additional surgical location at Froedtert Hospital in Milwaukee as well.
  • We have a highly specialized Children's Transport Team available 24 hours a day to stabilize and transport seriously sick and injured infants and children to our center. More than 1,500 transports are provided each year.
  • We offer the Family Accommodations Program to help make travel arrangements and coordinate appointments for families traveling to our center from a long distance.
  • We train future pediatric cardiologists in our fellowship program and are actively recruiting additional pediatric cardiologists to care for the ever-increasing number of patients who seek our care.

Patients and families:

  • If you cannot keep a scheduled appointment, please call Central Scheduling at (877) 607-5280 or (414) 607-5280 as soon as possible to reschedule so another child can be seen.
  • Arrive 15 minutes before your scheduled appointment so we can gather needed information from you before you see the doctor.

Referring physicians:

  • Referring physicians can access our specialists for consultation or transport 24 hours a day. Call our physician referral line at (800) 266-0366.  
  • Health care providers from outside of our southeastern Wisconsin service area are encouraged to use our web-based
    e-Consult service. This service is available for non-urgent patient cases only and gives providers access to our specialists to review patient cases, obtain medical advice or second opinions, and receive care recommendations for rare symptoms and illnesses.
    e-Consult is not to be used by the general public, parents/guardians or families.
  • Care guidelines for medical professionals
  • Educational materials
  • Pocket Directory

If you have questions about this information, email us or call (414) 266-6556.