Public Reporting of Hospital-Level Cancer Surgical Volumes in California (ovarian cancer not included in study)

abstract:
Public Reporting of Hospital-Level Cancer Surgical Volumes in California: An Opportunity to Inform Decision Making and Improve Quality 

 Methods: Hospital cancer surgery volumes for all California hospitals were calculated using ICD-9 coded hospital discharge summary data. Cancer surgeries included (bladder, brain, breast, colon, esophagus, liver, lung, pancreas, prostate, rectum, and stomach) were selected on the basis of a rigorous literature review to confirm sufficient evidence of a positive association between volume and mortality......

 Results: In California in 2014, about 60% of surgeries were performed at top-quintile–volume hospitals, but the per-hospital median numbers of surgeries for esophageal, pancreatic, stomach, liver, or bladder cancer surgeries were four or fewer. At least 670 patients received cancer surgery at hospitals that performed only one or two surgeries for a particular cancer type; 72% of those patients lived within 50 miles of a top-quintile–volume hospital.