Surgical volume information would be more useful to patients in choosing a hospital than infection rates, readmissions or other publicly reported data points, Peter Pronovost, MD, PhD, wrote in a recent piece for U.S. News & World Report.
Dr. Pronovost is the director of Johns Hopkins' Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality in Baltimore. He wrote the article as an accompaniment to a U.S. News analysis released Wednesday showing low- and medium-volume congenital heart defect programs put patients' livelihood at risk.
Although surgical volume has a direct correlation to mortality rates, "few parents know how to ask about volumes, let alone know how to find and evaluate the data," Dr. Pronovost wrote.
According to Dr. Pronovost, the government, professional organizations, hospitals, payers and physicians and hospital leaders all have a role to play to make this a reality.
The government needs to publicly report volume data for high-risk surgeries and work with industry professional organizations to make the comparisons fair, he wrote.
Professional societies that collect data from hospitals about surgeries should be more transparent, he wrote, praising the Society of Thoracic Surgeons for doing so already.
Hospitals need to tell the public how often high-risk surgeries are performed at the facility. Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins Medicine already does so for 10 high-risk surgeries at its academic medical centers.
Payers can help direct patients to high-volume hospitals and surgeons.
Physicians and hospital leaders should accept the data and make it public for the good of the patient. "Though these data are not perfect, I hope they embrace the ethical obligation to finally make this information available to patients," Dr. Pronovost wrote.
"As an industry, healthcare has the chance to make a change that is as powerful as a blockbuster medicine. We've already discovered it: surgical volumes. The challenge is coming up with the courage and political will to bring it to patients," he concluded.