Complications: All Thoracic Surgery Cases, 2005-2008
Complexity and extent of surgery importantly impacts risk of complications or death. The Providence Thoracic Surgery Program tracks the incidence of life threatening complications from the procedures we perform as an important program quality indicator. Again, no national benchmarking currently exists for thoracic surgeries but large studies published for other reasons occasionally contain such information (Morbidity & mortality of major pulmonary resections in patients with early stage lung cancer: Initial results of randomized prospective ACOSOG Z0030 trial. Allen et al. Ann Thorac Surg 2006;81:1013-20.) We use these data to provide an ongoing scorecard, allowing programmatic improvement in patient selection criteria and care patterns.
