The Mount Sinai Health System has earned a prestigious three-star rating from the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) for its outstanding patient care and surgical outcomes in lung cancer and esophageal cancer surgeries. This rating—representing the highest category for quality—places Mount Sinai among the elite 2.5 percent of thoracic surgery programs in the United States and Canada.
The three-star designation, awarded by the STS General Thoracic Surgery Database, reflects exceptional performance in key areas such as mortality, complications, and overall patient outcomes following surgery. Achieving this rating in both lung and esophageal cancer surgery is exceptionally rare and reflects the strength and depth of Mount Sinai's thoracic surgery program.
"Almost every academic institution submits their data to the STS to measure quality of care," says Raja M. Flores, MD, Chair of the Department of Thoracic Surgery at the Mount Sinai Health System and Steven and Ann Ames Professor in Thoracic Surgery at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. "Most top institutions receive two stars, which is already excellent. A three-star rating means your outcomes are among the best anywhere—better than 97.5 percent of all other programs. To get that rating in both lung and esophageal cancer surgery is nearly unheard of. It's a testament to the team and the level of care we provide."
The STS star rating system is one of the most respected measures of quality in health care. It is based on risk-adjusted national data and is considered a gold standard in measuring surgical performance across the United States and Canada. Only a small percentage of programs receive three stars in a given area, and far fewer achieve it across multiple categories.
"This is not just about great surgeons," Dr. Flores adds. "It's about the entire infrastructure—our nurses, anesthesiologists, intensivists, and support teams—all working together to ensure the best outcomes for our patients."
The STS General Thoracic Surgery Database, part of the broader STS National Database established in 1989, is one of the largest clinical registries in health care; STS captures outcomes data from thousands of thoracic surgery programs across North America and is widely used to drive improvements in quality and transparency.
