| Hospital Specific Reports |
|
|
 |
| Pediatric Heart Surgery |
|
Oregon 2004
| What is Pediatric Heart Surgery?* |
Pediatric heart surgery includes any one of a number of surgical procedures performed on infants or children under 18 years to repair or lessen the symptoms of congenital heart disease or other conditions.
Congenital heart defects* are structural problems that develop in the heart before or at birth. Abnormally formed valves or blood vessels, abnormal or missing connections between arteries or veins and the heart chambers, or "holes" between the chambers are the most common congenital heart defects. These abnormalities can limit the blood and oxygen supply to the body or flood the lungs with too much blood.
See Healthwise additional information on congenital heart defects.
*Adapted with permission from Healthwise® Knowledgebase, © 1995-2005 Healthwise, Incorporated, P.O. Box 1989, Boise, Idaho 83701. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
| What does this indicator mean? |
Volume. The number of patients admitted for pediatric heart surgery is displayed as the volume. Pediatric heart surgery is highly specialized, and staff at hospitals that perform more of these surgeries may be more familiar with possible complications that can occur.
Therefore, performing more of these surgeries may lead to better outcomes. Volume is not a direct measure of the quality of care, but is useful in gauging how much experience a particular hospital has for this procedure.
Research indicates that performing at least 100 surgeries per year may lead to better patient outcomes. In Oregon, three hospitals performed at least one pediatric heart surgery in 2004, and two hospitals performed 100 or more.
Death Rate. The pediatric heart surgery death rate is the percent of patients admitted for pediatric heart surgery who died in the hospital.
Some patients are sicker or more difficult to treat, and some hospitals admit more of these complex patients than others. Each hospital’s death rate is adjusted to help account for differences in these factors, but keep in mind that the adjustment is not perfect. It is even more challenging to control for these factors for pediatric heart surgery patients. The adjusted death rate is presented below. Due to the difficulties with adjusting for differences in such a special population and the infrequency of this procedure, pediatric heart surgery death rates for individual hospitals are not reported.
The average death rate for pediatric heart surgery in the United States was 4.3% in 2002. In Oregon, the average death rate was 3.4% in 2004.
|
| Pediatric Heart Surgery Volume |
|
Oregon 2004
Notes
- Hospitals not shown had fewer than 5 of these procedures in 2004.
- Applies to children less than 18 years of age.
- Statewide Pediatric Heart Surgery volume was 379 in 2004
- See Technical Documentation for more detail
- Hospitals that submitted additional information about their volume are listed below each graph; click on the hospital name to access their comments.
- The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality indicates that performing more than 100 cases per year may lead to better outcomes.
Hospitals performing five or more pediatric heart surgeries were all located in the Portland Metropolitan Area.
The following hospitals have provided comments regarding these figures:
Hospitals not shown had fewer than 5 cases in the reporting year.
|
|
|
|
|
