High Volume Equals Safety in Surgery

Hospitals whose surgeons perform hundreds of surgeries annually have better patient outcomes than do those whose surgeons perform fewer. The data on this has become so pronounced and compelling that three of the top academic hospital systems in the U.S. plan to limit low volume surgeries. According to Zach Budryk, writing for Fierce Health Care, the hospital systems will no longer allow surgeons to perform procedures unless they have what administrators believe to be sufficient experience.

A report by U.S. News & World Report indicates that this is the first attempt to limit procedures as health systems generally give surgeons the right to perform any procedure listed within the scope of their training. The three systems have listed ten surgeries that carry higher mortality risks when performed by surgeons who only do them occasionally. Joint replacement is one of those surgeries.

Budryk noted that 1.3 million people a year in the U.S. undergo one or more of the ten procedures listed. About 264, 000 of them are performed at a hospital that would not meet the standards, according to John Birkmeyer, M.D., a surgeon and chief academic officer at Dartmouth-Hitchcock. Birkmeyer helped draft the standards with the help of Peter Pronovost, director of the Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality at Johns Hopkins University.