There were few surprises in a new report on quality ratings for 121 California hospitals that performed coronary artery bypass graft surgery in 2003. Nearly all of the hospitals performed as expected, with four exceeding expectations and four performing worse than expected. Statewide, the mortality rate, which includes all deaths in the hospital and up to 30 days after surgery, was 2.91%. The data showed that patients had a similar risk of dying at a hospital that did a low volume of CABG surgeries as they did at a high-volume hospital. Also, the risk adjustment model was appropriate and did not penalize hospitals for treating sicker patients.
The report, mandated by 2001 legislation, lays the foundation for public reporting of CABG outcomes and highlights the differences in mortality rates for California hospitals. The next report, to be released later this year, will also report on individual surgeon’s outcomes. California is one of only four states that use clinical data to report on hospital and surgeon outcomes for bypass surgery. Click here to download the report.
