BMJ  2003;327 (5 July), doi:10.1136/bmj.327.7405.0

Risk stratified rates better than surgeon specific mortality data

Crude comparisons of surgeon specific death rates can be misleading, and release of such information into the public domain may encourage surgeons to practise risk averse behaviour. Bridgewater and colleagues (p 13) analysed data for 8572 patients who had had isolated bypass graft surgery for the first time during 1999-2002 in the north west of England. They found that most of the predicted variability in death rates among surgeons was due to a small but differing number of high risk patients. The authors recommend a comparison of death rates that is stratified by risk and based on low risk cases as the national benchmark for assessing consultant specific performance.

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Surgeon specific mortality in adult cardiac surgery: comparison between crude and risk stratified data

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BMJ 2003 327: 13-17. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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