Thousand Oaks doctor top scorer in state report card By Tom Kisken Wednesday, April 8, 2009 Out of 284 cardiac surgeons in California, a Thousand Oaks doctor scored the highest in a state report card on heart bypass surgery. Dr. Mohammad Gharavi, who has offices in Thousand Oaks and Encino, was the only surgeon in the state with an adjusted patient mortality rate ranked as significantly better than the state average during 2005 and 2006. On Wednesday, the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development released its report measuring the patient mortality rate of cardiac surgeons and hospitals that perform heart bypasses. Gharavi, 66, performed 234 bypass surgeries that didn’t also involve other procedures over the two years, with one death, according to the report. Most of the operations were at Los Robles Hospital & Medical Center in Thousand Oaks and what is now Providence Tarzana Medical Center. Joe Parker, director of the state’s healthcare outcomes center, called Gharavi’s risk-adjusted mortality rate of 0.43 percent “phenomenally low.” “I think what that means is he’s achieved an incredible success,” Parker said. “It’s not an easy thing to achieve that kind of an outcome.” Gharavi is part of the California Center for Cardiothoracic Surgery and has been at Los Robles since 1985. He attributed the success to the teams at the center and the hospitals. “We try to keep things simple,” he said. “The more you complicate the process by doing peripheral things the more likely of something going wrong.” Hospitals and surgeons are required to participate in the statewide report, which adjusts mortality rates for patients’ ages, pre-existing conditions and other risk factors. Eight doctors had mortality rates graded as significantly worse than the state average. None were in Ventura County. According to the report, there were 347 deaths in about 15,647 heart bypass surgeries in California that didn’t involve other procedures in 2006. The statewide mortality rate of about 2.2 percent was better than the national rate of about 2.4 percent given by The Society of Thoracic Surgeons. The report also assessed the heart bypass performance of 121 hospitals in the state during 2006. The three hospitals in the county that perform the procedure were all rated as being consistent with the state’s average. Los Robles had a risk-adjusted mortality rate of 0.57 percent. Community Memorial Hospital in Ventura had a rate of about 0.66 percent, and St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Oxnard had a rate of 1.01 percent. © 2009 Ventura County Star