If All Coronary Artery Bypass Graft Surgeries Were Done As Well As In The Top Hospitals 1,500 Lives Could Be Saved, USA

New research estimates that 1500
lives could potentially be saved if U.S. hospitals with the
highest risk-adjusted mortality rates (RAMR) for Coronary
Artery Bypass Graft (CABG) surgery performed as well as
hospitals with the lowest RAMR. The same study also found
that the mortality rate for women was higher than men
regardless of performance ranking, but the differential
increased as performance declined. The study ranked US
hospitals conducting CABG surgery into four performance
tiers and determined whether there were overall and
gender-specific differences in the mortality rates across
the tiers. It was funded and conducted by Cardiac Data
Solutions, Inc., in conjunction with leading physician
researchers, and published in Archives of Internal Medicine.



The study found that the average RAMR among Medicare
beneficiaries in 2003 and 2004 ranged from 1.4 percent among
the highest performing hospitals, or those in Tier 1, to 6.4
percent in the fourth or lowest ranking tier. As noted in
the Archives of Internal Medicine, "The relative risk of
mortality for undergoing CABG surgery in a bottom tier
hospital was 4.4 times that of a top-tier hospital," and
"75% of the observed deaths of either male or female
Medicare beneficiaries treated in a tier 4 hospital could be
avoided if tier 4 hospitals could improve their performance
to the average performance of top tier hospitals."



The gender differential against women, meanwhile, increased
from .68 percent in Tier 1 to 2.67 percent in Tier 4.
According to researchers, the increase in the gender
difference in risk-adjusted mortality from Tier 1 to all
other tiers is statistically significant.



"With CABG surgery being performed on an elective basis more
often and at a growing number of hospitals, there is
increasing interest and debate regarding performance
ratings," said one of the authors, April Simon, RN, MSN, and
president of Cardiac Data Solutions. "While we still need to
understand the factors contributing to performance among
hospitals and various patient populations, this study
reinforces that CABG patients, especially women, would
benefit from performance ratings based on lives saved and
being treated at top performing hospitals."



The article also noted that the difference in relative
mortality rates between the highest and lowest performing
hospitals is greater than the reduction in mortality rates
seen over the past ten years as the result of clinical
advances in CABG surgery.



Hospital administrators and chief medical officers
interested in how their hospitals ranked are invited to send
their name, title and facility name to
cdsinfocardiacdatasolutions.



The lead researchers for the study were Steven D. Culler,
PhD, associate professor, Rollins School of Public Health,
Emory University, and April W. Simon, MSN, president,
Cardiac Data Solutions. Other researchers included: Phillip
Brown, MD, cardiovascular surgeon (retired) and past
chairman, Department of Surgery, Centennial Medical Center;
Aaron Kugelmass, M.D., director of Cardiac Catheterization
at Henry Ford Hospital; Matthew R. Reynolds, MD,
electrophysiologist and director, Economics and Quality of
Life Core Lab, Harvard Clinical Research Institute; and
Kimberly J Rask, MD, PhD, research associate professor and
director, Emory Center on Health Outcomes and Quality,
Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University.



About Cardiac Data Solutions, Inc. (CDS)



Founded in 1999, Cardiac Data Solutions, Inc. (CDS) provides
consultation services, data analysis, clinical benchmarks,
management tools, research support services and leadership
training to hospitals, physicians, payors, manufacturers and
the financial community. CDS is focused solely on the
cardiovascular market with the primary mission of supporting
and improving clinical and business decisions to improve the
quality of patient care. Using a proprietary data analysis
tool with comprehensive and current data on clinical
outcomes, CDS helps identify opportunities for improvement
and develop evidence-based strategies to achieve them. For
more information, visit cardiacdatasolutions.

Cardiac Data Solutions, Inc.