Risk Aversion in Cardiac Surgery: 15-Year Trends in a Statewide Analysis.

ABSTRACT:

Background

With a rising emphasis on public reporting, we hypothesized that select hospitals are becoming increasingly risk-averse by avoiding high-risk operations. Further, we evaluated the association between risk-averse practices, outcomes, and publicly reported quality measures.

Methods

Clinical data from 78,417 patients undergoing cardiac surgery (2002-2016) from a regional consortium was paired with publicly available reimbursement and quality data. High-risk surgery was defined as predicted risk of mortality ≥5%. Hospital risk aversion was defined as a significant decrease in both high-risk volume and proportion, with cases stratified by hospital risk aversion status for univariate analysis.

Results

The rate of high-risk cases decreased from 17.9% in 2002 to 12

SUBMITTER: Hawkins RB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11391908 | biostudies-literature | 2020 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature