Hospital Quality Rankings in Vascular Surgery: The Impact of Adjusting for Reliability

Abstract

Introduction: Because of random variation, differences in risk-adjusted hospital mortality may not accurately reflect differences in hospital quality. We sought to determine the effect of empirical Bayes methods (reliability adjustment) on hospital mortality rankings for vascular surgery. Methods: Patients undergoing 5 common vascular surgery procedures (open and endovascular abdominal aortic aneurysm repair, carotid endarterectomy, lower extremity bypass and aortofemoral bypass). in the National Surgical Quality Improvement Project (NSQIP) in 2007 were identified (n=14,559).