Palomar Medical Center Escondido first in county to receive heart valve procedure certification

ESCONDIDO – Palomar Medical Center Escondido has received the Transcatheter Valve Certification from the American College of Cardiology for implementing evidence-based practices and meeting the highest quality and outcome standards for heart valve surgery. PMC is the first and currently only hospital in all of San Diego County to receive this certification.

The ACC's Transcatheter Valve Certification is a rigorous one-year external review and certification process that pairs with established national clinical databases to monitor patient safety and real-world outcomes related to Transcatheter valve therapies.

"Heart surgery can be enormously complex, but our interventional cardiologists and heart surgeons have made many procedures almost routine through innovation and by following rigorous guidelines established through extensive research shown to deliver superior outcomes," said Dr. Mikhail Malek, cardiologist and medical director for Palomar Health's Heart and Vascular Center of Excellence.

"What once required open-chest surgery and months of recovery can now be performed as a minimally invasive procedure with the patient returning home the next day and resuming normal activity in a few days," said Palomar Health Interventional Cardiologist Rod Serry, MD, who performs more TAVR (Transcatheter aortic valve replacement) procedures than any cardiologist in North County San Diego.

"Palomar Medical Center Escondido has demonstrated its commitment to providing San Diego County with excellent heart care," said Phillip D. Levy, MD, FACC, chair of the ACC Accreditation Management Board. "ACC Accreditation Services is proud to award Palomar Medical Center Escondido with Transcatheter Valve Certification."

The certification is further validation of the quality of care provided by Palomar Health's Heart and Vascular Center of Excellence, which also includes awards from U.S. News and World Report, the American Heart Association and Healthgrades.

Submitted by Palomar Health.