Surgical Mortality as an Indicator of Hospital Quality

Top Cited Papers
Open Access
Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Patients and policy makers increasingly use rates of surgical mortality to assess hospital performance. New York and Pennsylvania have long-standing systems for tracking and publicly reporting risk-adjusted mortality rates after cardiac surgery1,2; California and New Jersey have more recently adopted this approach.3,4 The Leapfrog Group, a large coalition of employers and purchasers, has made surgical mortality rates one of the criteria for "evidence-based referral" for cardiac procedures.5 As part of its broader efforts to develop a core set of quality indicators, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has recently endorsed the use of surgical mortality rates for 7 surgical procedures including repair of abdominal aortic aneurysm, esophageal resection, and hip replacement.6

This publication has 2 references indexed in Scilit: