Dr. Sharon-Lise Normand, professor of health care policy (biostatistics) at HCP, is director of Mass-DAC, the state-funded data-coordinating center established in 2002 to collect and evaluate data on cardiac surgery and angioplasty programs in the Commonwealth. On December 18, Mass-DAC released data on surgeon-specific mortality rates for cardiac bypass surgery, making Massachusetts only the fourth state in the nation to do so.
“The information is there for consumers and physicians,” says Normand. “People need to make health care decisions, and this and our previous reports can be valuable resources for consumers who are able to make a choice in where to receive their care. This report uses state-of-the-art statistical methods to account for differences in the overall health of patients prior to their surgery and is vetted by the most experienced surgeons in the state.”
In November 2006, Mass-DAC released hospital-specific data on cardiac bypass surgery and angioplasty mortality rates from January 1, 2002 to December 31, 2004. The coordinating center collects and analyzes very detailed clinical data, which all Massachusetts hospitals performing these procedures are required by law to submit on a quarterly basis. The data undergo a careful auditing process, with chiefs of cardiac surgery throughout the Commonwealth reviewing and auditing patient charts. In addition, data are collected using the Society of Thoracic Surgeons National Cardiac Surgery Database instrument (for cardiac surgery) and the American College of Cardiology’s National Cardiovascular Data Registry instrument (for coronary intervention procedures). Mass-DAC makes every effort to ensure that reporting procedures are consistent across hospitals.
“With hospital-specific information publicly available,” says Normand, “hospitals have been forced to look at the quality of the care they provide. Now, with the surgeon-specific report, they can look even closer. This will help ensure that the quality of all hospitals is excellent—which is especially important for patients who don’t have a choice of where they receive care.”
Notes Ann Lovett, MA, RN, Mass-DAC program manager at HCP, “These reports have required hospitals to look at something they perhaps thought was fine and to look more deeply than they had before. A great number of people are working together on this project to make sure that care for all patients is top-notch.”
For more information, visit the Mass-DAC website. To download or view the reports, click on Reports and Publications on the top navigation bar, then choose either Cardiac Surgery or PCI on the left.
