title: The Dutch hospital standardised mortality ratio (HSMR) method and cardiac surgery: benchmarking in a national cohort using hospital administration data versus a clinical database.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To compare the accuracy of data from hospital administration databases and a national clinical cardiac surgery database and to compare the performance of the Dutch hospital standardised mortality ratio (HSMR) method and the logistic European System for Cardiac Operative Risk Evaluation, for the purpose of benchmarking of mortality across hospitals.
  
  
  METHODS
  Information on all patients undergoing cardiac surgery between 1 January 2007 and 31 December 2010 in 10 centres was extracted from The Netherlands Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery database and the Hospital Discharge Registry. The number of cardiac surgery interventions was compared between both databases. The European System for Cardiac Operative Risk Evaluation and hospital standardised mortality ratio models were updated in the study population and compared using the C-statistic, calibration plots and the Brier-score.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The number of cardiac surgery interventions performed could not be assessed using the administrative database as the intervention code was incorrect in 1.4-26.3%, depending on the type of intervention. In 7.3% no intervention code was registered. The updated administrative model was inferior to the updated clinical model with respect to discrimination (c-statistic of 0.77 vs 0.85, p<0.001) and calibration (Brier Score of 2.8% vs 2.6%, p<0.001, maximum score 3.0%). Two average performing hospitals according to the clinical model became outliers when benchmarking was performed using the administrative model.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In cardiac surgery, administrative data are less suitable than clinical data for the purpose of benchmarking. The use of either administrative or clinical risk-adjustment models can affect the outlier status of hospitals. Risk-adjustment models including procedure-specific clinical risk factors are recommended.
authors: Department of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery, University Medical Centre Utrecht, , Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors: S
authors: S
authors: Siregar
authors: M E
authors: ME
authors: Pouw
authors: K G M
authors: KG
authors: Moons
authors: M I M
authors: MI
authors: Versteegh
authors: M L
authors: ML
authors: Bots
authors: Y
authors: Y
authors: van der Graaf
authors: C J
authors: CJ
authors: Kalkman
authors: L A
authors: LA
authors: van Herwerden
authors: R H H
authors: RH
authors: Groenwold
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D019985:Benchmarking / Q000379:methods*; D006348:Cardiac Surgical Procedures / Q000401:mortality* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D016208:Databases, Factual; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006331:Heart Diseases / Q000401:mortality / Q000601:surgery*; D006739:Hospital Administration / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D017052:Hospital Mortality / Q000639:trends; D006753:Hospital Records; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009426:Netherlands / Q000453:epidemiology; D010351:Patient Discharge / Q000639:trends; D011379:Prognosis; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D020379:Risk Adjustment / Q000379:methods*; D012307:Risk Factors; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Cardiac Surgery