The predictive accuracy of the New York State coronary artery bypass surgery report-card system.
We examined the impact of New York State's public reporting system for coronary artery bypass surgery fifteen years after its launch. We found that users who picked a top-performing hospital or surgeon from the latest available report had approximately half the chance of dying as did those who picked a hospital or surgeon from the bottom quartile. Nevertheless, performance was not associated with a subsequent change in market share. Surgeons with the highest mortality rates were much more likely than other surgeons to retire or leave practice after the release of each report card.
Jha
Ashish K
AK
Department of Health Policy and Management, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. ajha@hsph.harvard.edu
Epstein
Arnold M
AM