title: The Correlation of Media Ranking's "Best" Hospitals and Surgical Outcomes Following Radical Cystectomy for Urothelial Cancer.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate whether there is a correlation between publicized health ranking systems and surgical outcomes after radical cystectomy (RC) in New York State (NYS).
  
  
  METHODS
  Using the Statewide Planning and Research Cooperative System, data were collected in an aggregated fashion per hospital for the 20 hospitals with the highest RC volume in NYS from 2009 to 2012. Hospital characteristics were obtained from the publicly available sources such as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Publicized ranking systems evaluated included the US News & World Health Report for Urology ranking (USHR), Healthgrades (HG) score, and Consumer Reports (CR) safety ranking. Outcomes measured included mortality, readmissions, and causes of readmissions.
  
  
  RESULTS
  CR safety scores were inversely associated with overall death at 90 days after surgery (R = -0.527, P = .030), number of readmissions (R = -0.608, P = .030), and readmissions because of surgical complications (R = -0.523, P = .031) on a Pearson correlation test. On Kendall rank tau test, USHR and HG were not associated with any outcome of interest, although the scores correlated with increasing RC volume.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In our analysis of 20 hospitals with the highest RC volume in NYS, USHR and HG scores were not strongly associated with any clinical outcome after RC. CR performed well in comparison with USHR and HG. Nevertheless, better metrics are needed to compare hospitals and to incorporate curative rates for morbid surgeries.
authors.affiliation: Herbert Irving Cancer Center, New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center and Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, NY. Electronic address: dl2178@columbia.edu.
authors.forename: Danny
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lascano
authors.affiliation: Herbert Irving Cancer Center, New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center and Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, NY.
authors.forename: Julia B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Finkelstein
authors.affiliation: Herbert Irving Cancer Center, New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center and Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, NY.
authors.forename: LaMont J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Barlow
authors.affiliation: Gold Health Strategies, Inc., New York, NY.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kabat
authors.affiliation: Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY.
authors.forename: Arindam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: RoyChoudhury
authors.affiliation: Mount Sinai Miami Medical Center, Miami, FL.
authors.forename: Jorge R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Caso
authors.affiliation: Herbert Irving Cancer Center, New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center and Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, NY.
authors.forename: G Joel
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: DeCastro
authors.affiliation: Gold Health Strategies, Inc., New York, NY.
authors.forename: William
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Gold
authors.affiliation: Herbert Irving Cancer Center, New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center and Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, NY.
authors.forename: James M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: McKiernan
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002295:Carcinoma, Transitional Cell / Q000601:surgery*; D015653:Cystectomy / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000401:mortality; D005260:Female; D061847:Hospitals, High-Volume / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D008297:Male; D008402:Mass Media; D008875:Middle Aged; D009518:New York / Q000453:epidemiology; D010359:Patient Readmission / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care; D019984:Quality Indicators, Health Care; D001749:Urinary Bladder Neoplasms / Q000601:surgery*