Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center’s heart transplant program boasts a 100% three-year survival rate, making it one of the top-ranked programs in the country.
All patients who underwent a heart transplant at the Pennsylvania hospital between January 2020 and June 2022 were alive three years later, according to the latest data from the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients.
This marks the second time the hospital has achieved a 100% three-year survival rate for heart transplant patients, leaders said in a Jan. 6 health system news release. Nationally, the three-year survival rate for heart transplant recipients during the same period was 85%.
The hospital’s program also reported zero deaths among patients on its transplant wait list during the July 2023 to June 2025 rating period, meaning every patient survived while waiting for a heart transplant.
“These outcomes reflect the strength of our comprehensive approach to advanced heart failure, which focuses on optimizing patients well before and throughout the transplant process — not just during surgery,” Behzad Soleimani, MD, chair of the Department of Surgery at Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and director of the Penn State Heart and Vascular Institute, said in the release. “By coordinating care across specialties and maintaining patients in the best possible condition, we are able to achieve exceptional waitlist survival and outstanding long-term transplant outcomes.”
Clinicians at the Penn State Heart and Vascular Institute have performed 609 heart transplants since 1984.
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