Hi Tom, and thanks for your question.
As you know, the number of procedures performed has been shown to
correlate with outcomes. I agree with the commenter (msgirl38111-ga)
who stated that the mortality statistic is the most important
statistic. Determining how applicable the Medicare data is to your
specific situation is a little tricky, since most young people are not
on Medicare. The data therefore describes a somewhat different, older
population. I do think, however, that there is some correlation with
this data and how good each hospital is in terms of outcomes. I've
tried to give you some additional information based on the overall
populations in each location.
Here is a recent article discussing the issue of numbers of procedures
versus outcomes, from MedicineNet:
http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=46862
Here's a reference to the original article cited by the above report:
Schelbert EB, Vaughan-Sarrazin MS, Welke KF, Rosenthal GE. Hospital
volume and selection of valve type in older patients undergoing aortic
valve replacement surgery in the United States. Circulation. 2005 May
3;111(17):2178-82. Epub 2005 Apr 25.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.ezproxy.umassmed.edu/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=retrieve&db=pubmed&list_uids=15851595&dopt=Abstract
Although this article is not freely available online, you can request
a free reprint from Dr. Schelbert at this address:
erik-schelbert@uiowa.edu
__________________
So, knowing that, who has performed the most procedures in the
locations you describe?
I couldn't find a reference for the Medicare data cited, so I wanted
to corroborate this information in some way. There's a useful online
tool provided by the Department of Health and Human Services called
H-CUP. This database catalogues data from hospitals around the
country.
http://hcup.ahrq.gov/HCUPnet.asp
I'll first present the results, then tell you how to do your own searches.
=========
Washington
=========
For Washington state, the most recent data available is for 2003. The
data is tabulated for all valve repairs taken together. There were a
total of 1,814 heart valve procedures performed, 96.2% of which were
in metropolitan hospitals. The data broken down another way shows
that 64.8% of procedures were performed in teaching hospitals (i.e.,
associated with the University of Washington), 74.5% were in "large"
hospitals compared to 22.3% in medium and 3.2% in small hospitals.
88% were done in private not-for-profit hospitals.
The mean length of stay for the metropolitan hospitals was 7.3 days,
which was the same as the mean for the whole state. The median length
of stay was 6 days for metropolitan hospitals, also the same as the
state as a whole, likely because of the large number of procedures
performed in metropolitan hospitals.
For all patients in all risk categories, there was a 4.9% in-hospital
death rate for the metropolitan hospitals. The highest death rate was
in non-teaching hospitals (grouping them all together), which was
7.1%. The state-wide death rate was 5%.
______
Some cardiothoracic surgeons at the University of Washington:
Dr. Gabriel S. Aldea
http://depts.washington.edu/surgery/faculty/aldea.html
aldea@u.washington.edu
Chief of cardiac surgery at UW. One of his specialties is valve
repair and replacement. He is also an expert on aortic root
pathology.
______
Dr. Edward D. Verrier
http://depts.washington.edu/surgery/faculty/verrier.html
edver@u.washington.edu
Vice-chairman, Chief of Cardiothoracic Surgery
He is an expert on thoracic aortic surgery and valvular repair and replacement.
=======
Montana
=======
The population of Missoula was estimated to be about 61,790 in July,
2004 according to this source:
http://www.city-data.com/city/Missoula-Montana.html
I've never been there, but it looks like a beautiful city! There are
two medical centers:
COMMUNITY MEDICAL CENTER INC (2827 FT MISSOULA RD)
ST PATRICK HOSPITAL CORP (500 W BROADWAY BOX 4587)
As you may know, the International Heart Institute is affiliated with
St. Patrick Hospital.
Unfortunately, the H-CUP database does not have information on Montana
- a bad sign in terms of the likely number of procedures performed.
The closest we can get is by region, which includes everything in the
west, which isn't useful. If it weren't for the IHI, I would say that
the data from the H-CUP for the non-metropolitan portion of Washington
state would be a good estimate. This would give about 69 procedures
for 2003. A better estimate is to look at research done by the IHIMF
to see how many patients they discuss.
The following reference, although somewhat dated, gives us a better picture:
"Objectives: The presence of moderate aortic valve (AV) lesions
associated with other pathologies that require surgery presents a
problem since ignoring or replacing the valve seems unsatisfactory. AV
repair can be an attractive alternative if shown to perform
satisfactory. Methods: To evaluate this possibility, all consecutive
AV patients who underwent operation between July 1988 and July 1999
were reviewed. Out of 1764 AV patients, 239 (14%) underwent repair and
86 (study group) had moderate lesions associated with mitral (73),
tricuspid (33), coronary disease (5) and others (8). Mean age was 28
years (range 2?66); 78% were rheumatic, 71% were in sinus rhythm and
71% in NYHA class III?IV. Results: There were seven hospital deaths
(8%) and three patients were lost to follow-up (95% complete). Late
mortality was 8% and 10-year actuarial survival was 86±4.5% (excluding
hospital mortality). There were four (5%) embolic events (actuarial
freedom 94±3.5%). Twenty-one patients required reoperation with two
mortalities. The AV was not touched in five patients. In the remaining
16, the AV was replaced. Only one patient had isolated AV replacement
while in all others, additionally, the mitral, tricuspid, or both
required surgery. All reoperated patients had rheumatic etiology.
Actuarial freedom from AV dysfunction at 8 years was 68±7.5%.
Conclusions: Repair of associated moderate AV lesion is worth
considering even in a predominantly young rheumatic population."
So, the IHIMF has been doing roughly 160 aortic valve repairs per
year. Their mortality rate was 8% (with a mean patient age of 28 -
these were not all old high risk patients), which is higher than the
current data for metropolitan Washington state, but similar to the
non-teaching Washington state data (7.1%). Again this is only an
estimate in terms of the number of cases, but the bottom line is the
mortality rate. The posted Medicare data may be more accurate, but I
cannot verify that.
______
Here are the primary surgeons at the IHI:
Dr. Carlow M. G. Duran
http://www.ihimontana.org/ihi/duran.html
Dr. Carlos M. G. Duran is a well known leader in the field of valve
repair and is the driving force behind the founding of the IHIMF. You
can read more about him in a recent newsletter from the IHIMF:
http://www.ihimontanafoundation.org/newsletters/IHIMFNewsletter_Vol1Iss.pdf
______
Dr. Matt Maxwell
http://www.ihimontana.org/ihi/maxwell.html
Dr. Maxwell is the former head of cardiothoracic surgery at the Naval
Medical Center in San Diego.
================================
To do searches of this type:
Visit H-CUP:
http://hcup.ahrq.gov/HCUPnet.asp
Select State Statistics from the SID
Select Researcher, medical professional
Select Statistics on specific diagnoses or procedures
Select the State/Year you're interested in
Select Diagnoses grouped by Clinical Classifications Software (CCS)?
Select Principle Diagnosis
Type "heart valve," click search, and select heart valve
Click the boxes for the information you're interested in, e.g. %died,
number of discharges, length of stay, etc.
Select how you would like the data broken down (e.g. metropolitan vs.
non-metropolitan, large vs. small)
Next, select how you would like the data displayed. One-way tables
are more straight-forward, but two-way tables give a more detailed
cross reference of the data.
================================
Based solely on the 8% vs. 4.9% mortality rates, I would lean toward
having the procedure done at the University of Washington in Seattle.
I also don't think you would do badly at the International Heart
Institute, but I'm just going by the numbers that I can verify and
that I think cover a broader demographic than the Medicare data.
There's no way to know from the data what proportion of people in each
sample was higher risk. If the IHIMF sees more high risk patients,
then we would expect them to have a higher mortality rate. I tend to
think that their patient populations are similar if only because the
mortality rate for IHIMF is similar to that for the non-teaching
hospitals in Washington State, which is similar in demographics
(outside Seattle) to Montana.
I hope this information is helpful. I wish you the best in getting
through your surgery and recovery. Please request any clarification
prior to rating.
Best,
-welte-ga |
