A patient’s choice of hospital can mean the difference between life and death, according to the latest report from non-profit hospital watchdog The Leapfrog Group.
The watchdog released a report on high-risk procedures, an in-depth examination of four high-risk surgeries with significant variation in survival rates across hospitals, with data analysis by Castlight Health.
Across procedures only 15 to 40-percent of surveyed hospitals fully meet Leapfrog's standards.
Surgery to remove all part of the pancreas has a significant variance in survival rate by hospital, at 19-percent - from 81 to 100-percent, while an esophagectomy, which removes all or part of the esophagus, has an average survival rate of 90-percent with a variation by hospital of 88 to 98-percent.
Surgery to treat an enlarged abdominal aorta has a 13-percent variation in predicted survival rates -from 85.7 to 98.9-percent, while only 15-percent of hospitals fully met Leapfrog's standard for heart surgery which treats problems with the heart's aortic valve.
The Leapfrog Group, Risk Management, US, Castlight Health
