Two Bon Secours Richmond hospitals have earned the prestigious three-star rating from The Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) for patient care and outcomes in isolated coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) procedures. The three-star rating, which denotes the highest category of quality, places Bon Secours St. Mary’s Hospital in Henrico County and for the first time Bon Secours Memorial Regional Medical Center in Hanover County among the elite for heart bypass surgery in the US and Canada. These hospitals are now distinguished as two of just 195 programs across North America to achieve this distinguished status in cardiac care.

“A three-star designation is the most sought-after recognition by open heart surgery programs across the United States. We are proud to see the dedication, skill, and teamwork of our Bon Secours Richmond cardiac surgery programs at both Memorial Regional Medical Center and St. Mary’s Hospital recognized with this achievement,” said Brody Wehman, MD, who was the lead cardiac surgeon and Director of Cardiac Surgery at Bon Secours Memorial Regional Medical Center during the time of designation. “These three-star ratings reflect our team’s unwavering commitment to clinical excellence, patient safety and compassionate care. We are grateful for the trust of our patients to care for them during some of their most vulnerable times, and it is our honor to provide this level of care to our community.”

The STS star rating system is one of the most sophisticated and highly regarded overall measures of quality in health care, rating the benchmarked outcomes of cardiothoracic surgery programs across the US and Canada. The star rating is calculated using a combination of quality measures for specific procedures performed by an STS Adult Cardiac Surgery Database participant.

Historically, approximately 21% of participants receive the three-star rating for isolated CABG surgery. The latest analysis of data for CABG surgery covers a three-year period, from July 2022, through June 2025, and includes 941 participants.

“The Society of Thoracic Surgeons leads the effort in quality improvement by maintaining one of the most penetrant clinical databases in cardiothoracic surgery that employs high-fidelity risk models to provide risk-adjusted outcomes to individual participants,” said Ram Kumar Subramanyan, MD, PhD, Chair of the STS Council on Quality and Research. “STS thanks participants for voluntarily submitting data to the databases, demonstrating their commitment to improving healthcare delivery. Voluntary public reporting of outcomes by individual participants provides patients and their families with meaningful information to help them make informed decisions about healthcare.”

The STS National Database was established in 1989 as an initiative for quality improvement and patient safety among cardiothoracic surgeons. The Database includes four components: the Adult Cardiac Surgery Database (ACSD), the Congenital Heart Surgery Database (CHSD), the General Thoracic Surgery Database (GTSD), and the mechanical circulatory support database (Intermacs). The STS National Database contains more than 10 million surgical records from 6,000 participating physicians, including surgeons and anesthesiologists, which encompass greater than 95% of adult cardiac and congenital heart surgery performed in the US.

Bon Secours Richmond’s Cardiac Surgery program is now part of an elite group recognized nationwide for high-quality cardiac surgical care. With four surgeons operating across two hospitals, both now holding the prestigious three-star rating from the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, patients can access world-class cardiac care close to home.

Bon Secours St. Mary’s Hospital

  • Bon Secours’ flagship hospital in Richmond, St. Mary’s is a 391-bed acute care facility offering a broad range of services including cardiac, surgical, orthopedic, women’s and pediatric care.
  • In October 2025, construction began on an 8-story, $370 million critical care tower expansion that will feature a new state-of-the-art CVICU opening in 2028.

Bon Secours Memorial Regional Medical Center

  • Serving the greater Mechanicsville area since 1998, Memorial Regional is nationally recognized for clinical excellence in cardiac and stroke care.
  • In 2023, the hospital opened a new CVICU called the Cecil R. and Edna S. Hopkins Center for Cardiovascular Excellence. It features a “Universal Bed” model that allows patients to remain in the same ICU throughout their stay, improving patient safety and satisfaction.