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STS releases first public national report of congenital heart surgery outcomes

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The Society of Thoracic Surgeons has released a publicly accessible national report of surgical outcomes from the Congenital Heart Surgery Database.

The Congenital Heart Surgery Database (CHSD), part of the STS National Database, contains data from more than 95% of U.S. hospitals that perform pediatric heart surgery, according to a press release.

“The public reporting of these results represents something entirely new, in that this is the first time ever that pediatric and congenital heart surgery outcomes in the United States have been made available to the public on a national level, Jeffrey P. Jacobs, MD, chair of the STS Public Reporting Task Force and professor of surgery at The Johns Hopkins University, said in the release. “STS has always been a strong advocate of transparency within the specialty. We believe that our patients and their families have the right to know the outcomes of cardiothoracic surgery procedures so that they can make well-informed decisions.”

The public report lists 4-year observed, expected and risk-adjusted operative mortality rates for the aggregate of all patients, as well as for patients stratified by five STAT Mortality Categories. Outcomes were risk-adjusted for age, weight, noncardiac abnormalities, previous surgeries, preoperative comorbidities and other factors that could affect results, according to the release.

For the first round of STS public reporting online from the CHSD, 25 sites (22.7%) participated. The participation rate is similar to that of the STS Adult Cardiac Surgery Database, which has increased to 453 sites (42.7%) since it started reporting in 2010, according to the release.

Observed mortality rates from July 2010 to June 2014 ranged from 0.7% at Florida Hospital for Children in Orlando to 4.9% at University of Minnesota Masonic Children’s Hospital in Minneapolis. Adjusted mortality rates ranged from 1.1 (95% CI, 0-5.8) at Florida Hospital for Children to 5.2 (95% CI, 3.1-8.2) at Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital in Hollywood, Fla.

Public reporting of outcomes of other procedures, including lobectomy in cancer patients, will be added next year, according to Jacobs.

Reference:

Society of Thoracic Surgeons Congenital Heart Surgery Public Reporting