Donate Help Contact The AHA Sign In Home
American Heart Association
Circulation
Search: search_blue_button Advanced Search
Published Online
on August 9, 2004

Circulation. 2004
Published online before print August 9, 2004, doi: 10.1161/01.CIR.0000138744.13516.B5
A more recent version of this article appeared on August 17, 2004
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
110/7/784    most recent
01.CIR.0000138744.13516.B5v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Request Permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Wu, C.
Right arrow Articles by Subramanian, V. A.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Wu, C.
Right arrow Articles by Subramanian, V. A.
Right arrowPubmed/NCBI databases
Medline Plus Health Information
*Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery
Related Collections
Right arrow Health policy and outcome research
Right arrow CV surgery: coronary artery disease
Right arrowRelated Article

Submitted on November 14, 2003
Revised on April 13, 2004
Accepted on April 15, 2004

Is the Impact of Hospital and Surgeon Volumes on the In-Hospital Mortality Rate for Coronary Artery Bypass Graft Surgery Limited to Patients at High Risk?

Chuntao Wu MD, PhD*, Edward L. Hannan PhD, Thomas J. Ryan MD, Edward Bennett MD, Alfred T. Culliford MD, Jeffrey P. Gold MD, O. Wayne Isom MD, Robert H. Jones MD, Barbara McNeil MD, PhD, Eric A. Rose MD, and Valavanur A. Subramanian MD

From University at Albany (C.W., E.L.H.), State University of New York, Albany, NY; Boston University School of Medicine (T.J.R.), Boston, Mass; St. Peter’s Hospital (E.B.), Albany, NY; New York University Medical Center (A.T.C.), New York, NY; Montefiore Medical Center (J.P.G.), Bronx, NY; New York Hospital-Cornell (O.W.I.), New York, NY; Duke University Medical Center (R.H.J.), Durham, NC; Harvard Medical School (B.M.), Boston, Mass; Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center (E.A.R.), New York, NY; and Lenox Hill Hospital (V.A.S.), New York, NY.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: ctw09{at}health.state.ny.us.

Background--Restriction of volume-based referral for CABG surgery to high-risk patients has been suggested, and earlier studies have reached different conclusions regarding volume-based referral for low-risk patients.

Methods and Results--Patients who underwent isolated CABG surgery in New York from 1997 through 1999 (n=57 150) were separated into low-risk and moderate-to-high-risk groups with a predicted probability of in-hospital death of 2% as the cutoff point. The provider volume-mortality relationship was examined for both groups. For annual hospital volume thresholds between 200 and 600 cases, the adjusted ORs of in-hospital mortality for high-volume to low-volume hospitals ranged from 0.45 to 0.77 and were all significant for the low-risk group; for the moderate-to-high-risk group, ORs ranged from 0.62 to 0.91, and most were significant. The number needed to treat at higher-volume hospitals to avoid 1 death was greater for the low-risk group (a range of 114 to 446 versus 37 to 184). As the annual surgeon volume threshold increased from 50 to 150 cases, the ORs for high- to low-volume surgeons increased from 0.43 to 0.74 for the low-risk group; for the moderate-to-high-risk group, ORs ranged from 0.79 to 0.86. Compared with patients treated by surgeons with volumes of <125 in hospitals with volumes of <600, patients treated by higher-volume surgeons in higher-volume hospitals had a significantly lower risk of death; in particular, the OR was 0.52 for the low-risk group.

Conclusions--For both low-risk and moderate-to-high-risk patients, higher provider volume is associated with lower risk of death.


Key words: bypass • mortality • risk factors


Related Article:


Circulation 2004 110: 765. [Extract] [Full Text]



This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
J. Thorac. Cardiovasc. Surg.Home page
D. M. Shahian and S.-L. T. Normand
Low-volume coronary artery bypass surgery: Measuring and optimizing performance.
J. Thorac. Cardiovasc. Surg., June 1, 2008; 135(6): 1202 - 1209.
[Full Text] [PDF]


Home page
J. Thorac. Cardiovasc. Surg.Home page
H.-C. Lin, S. Xirasagar, N.-W. Tsao, Y.-T. Hwang, N.-W. Kuo, and H.-C. Lee
Volume-outcome relationships in coronary artery bypass graft surgery patients: 5-year major cardiovascular event outcomes.
J. Thorac. Cardiovasc. Surg., April 1, 2008; 135(4): 923 - 930.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Home page
Int J Qual Health CareHome page
S. C. Williams, R. G. Koss, D. J. Morton, S. P. Schmaltz, and J. M. Loeb
Case volume and hospital compliance with evidence-based processes of care
Int. J. Qual. Health Care, April 1, 2008; 20(2): 79 - 87.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Home page
Arch SurgHome page
D. D. Yuh
Volume-Outcome Relationship for Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting in an Era of Decreasing Volume--Invited Critique
Arch Surg, April 1, 2008; 143(4): 344 - 344.
[Full Text] [PDF]


Home page
Int J Qual Health CareHome page
L. G. Glance, T. M. Osler, D. B. Mukamel, and A. W. Dick
Estimating the potential impact of regionalizing health care delivery based on volume standards versus risk-adjusted mortality rate
Int. J. Qual. Health Care, August 1, 2007; 19(4): 195 - 202.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Home page
CirculationHome page
V. J. DiSesa, S. M. O'Brien, K. F. Welke, S. M. Beland, C. K. Haan, M. S. Vaughan-Sarrazin, and E. D. Peterson
Contemporary Impact of State Certificate-of-Need Regulations for Cardiac Surgery: An Analysis Using the Society of Thoracic Surgeons' National Cardiac Surgery Database
Circulation, November 14, 2006; 114(20): 2122 - 2129.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Home page
CirculationHome page
M. J. Radford
Percutaneous Coronary Intervention "Dominates" Coronary Artery Bypass Graft Surgery for High-Risk Patients: Good News for Patients, a Challenge for Healthcare Planners
Circulation, September 19, 2006; 114(12): 1229 - 1231.
[Full Text] [PDF]


Home page
CirculationHome page
T. P. Wharton Jr, E. C. Keeley, C. L. Grines, T. P. Wharton Jr, E. C. Keeley, and C. L. Grines
The Case for Community Hospital Angioplasty
Circulation, November 29, 2005; 112(22): 3509 - 3534.
[Full Text] [PDF]


Home page
J Am Coll CardiolHome page
H. M. Krumholz
The Year in Epidemiology, Health Services, and Outcomes Research
J. Am. Coll. Cardiol., October 4, 2005; 46(7): 1362 - 1370.
[Full Text] [PDF]


Home page
J Am Coll CardiolHome page
M. Moscucci, D. Share, D. Smith, M. J. O'Donnell, A. Riba, R. McNamara, T. Lalonde, A. C. Defranco, K. Patel, E. Kline Rogers, et al.
Relationship Between Operator Volume and Adverse Outcome in Contemporary Percutaneous Coronary Intervention Practice: An Analysis of a Quality-Controlled Multicenter Percutaneous Coronary Intervention Clinical Database
J. Am. Coll. Cardiol., August 16, 2005; 46(4): 625 - 632.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Home page
Ann. Thorac. Surg.Home page
A. Zacharias, T. A. Schwann, C. J. Riordan, S. J. Durham, A. Shah, T. J. Papadimos, M. Engoren, and R. H. Habib
Is Hospital Procedure Volume a Reliable Marker of Quality for Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery? A Comparison of Risk and Propensity Adjusted Operative and Midterm Outcomes
Ann. Thorac. Surg., June 1, 2005; 79(6): 1961 - 1969.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Home page
J Am Coll CardiolHome page
R. H. Jones
The Year in Cardiovascular Surgery
J. Am. Coll. Cardiol., May 3, 2005; 45(9): 1517 - 1528.
[Full Text] [PDF]