The study used data from 84,730 patients undergoing general and vascular surgery at 186 hospitals participating in the American College of Surgeons – National Surgical Quality Improvement Program, according to the report.
While mortality ranged vastly from 3.5-6.9 percent, complication rates stayed around the same at 16.2-18.2 percent, or around one in six patients. The study found that in low mortality hospitals, 12.5 percent of patients died from these complications, where as in high mortality hospitals, 21.5 percent died.
Researchers in the study determined that low mortality hospitals had medical teams that were able to rescue patients by having the ability to recognize and head off potentially deadly complications after surgery. The researchers also suggested that hospitals that perform high-risk surgery should have adequate resources for responding to complications, such as after-hours in-house physicians and rapid response teams.
Read the release about the University of Michigan patient mortality study.
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