MA lists death rates for individual heart doctors

Starting December 18, Massachusetts officials will begin publishing death rates for individual heart surgeons on a publicly accessible website. The site will offer mortality rate information on 55 surgeons who perform cardiac bypasses, one of the most common operations. In New York, where surgeon mortality data has been available since 1991, officials say the program has lowered death rates. Massachusetts surgeons, for their part, have expressed concern that public reporting will discourage doctors from accepting sicker patients with a greater risk of death, despite the fact that the state plans to adjust the data to factor in the severity of each doctor's case mix. Meanwhile, studies haven't demonstrated one way or the other whether the improved mortality rates shown in New York are due to risk-averse behavior by surgeons.

Get more background on the initiative:
- read this Boston Globe article

PLUS:  The CEO of a large Boston hospital thinks that reporting mortality rates is fine, but takes issue with the data the state is using. Blog

Related Article:
Consumer's take on surgeon ratings. Report

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