title: Speed and quality in coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery: is there a connection?
abstract: In this paper we study the connection between coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) operation time and quality. Our quality metric was the improvement in health related quality of life (HRQoL) survey score in a sample of 432 patients admitted to Kuopio University Hospital. Patients were interviewed with a structured questionnaire a day before the procedure and the follow-up questionnaires were mailed 6 and 12 months after the surgery. However, the HRQoL metric used did not have high retest reliability. Subsequently, we did not find any connection between CAGB operation times and HRQoL. Likewise, we did not find the speed of the surgeon to have any connection to HRQoL improvement.
authors.affiliation: Tampere University of Technology, Korkeakoulunkatu 8, P. O. Box 541, Tampere, Finland. Juha-Matti.2.Lehtonen@tut.fi
authors.forename: Juha-Matti
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Lehtonen
authors.forename: Mikko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hippeläinen
authors.forename: Eija
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kattainen
authors.forename: Juhani
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kouri
authors.forename: Jaakko
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kujala
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001026:Coronary Artery Bypass / Q000379:methods*; D003324:Coronary Artery Disease / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D011788:Quality of Life; D013997:Time Factors