African-Americans, Women Less Likely to Receive Effective Technique for Coronary Bypass Surgery

releases.usnewswire.com ^

[chance33_98]

Solucient: African-Americans, Women Less Likely to Receive Effective Technique for Coronary Bypass Surgery in U.S. Hospitals

10/27/03 10:00:00 AM

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To: National Desk

Contact: Tarsis Lopez of Solucient, 847-440-9619

EVANSTON, Ill., Oct. 27 /U.S. Newswire/ -- A new study by Solucient shows that U.S. hospitals are less likely to use a key heart bypass technique, known as IMA, on African-American and female patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery than Caucasians and men, respectively, despite a steady increase in use of this method over the past five years.

Still, the nation's top heart hospitals have adopted this bypass technique at much higher levels on a year-over-year basis than other U.S. hospitals.

The IMA heart bypass technique, which has been recognized in medical studies as the "gold standard" for significantly improving survival rates and lowering complications, requires surgeons to create detours around blockages in coronary arteries by using internal mammary arteries located under the chest wall, instead of more commonly used leg veins.

These findings appear in a new study, the 2003 Solucient 100 Top Hospitals(: Cardiovascular Benchmarks for Success, appearing today in the Oct. 27 edition of Modern Healthcare magazine. The annual study objectively measures performance against key criteria at the nation's top performing heart hospitals. Solucient provides comprehensive health care information to drive business growth, manage costs, and help deliver quality care for providers, payers, employers, and pharmaceutical companies.

"Cardiology care represents one of the most common, high profile, and vital of all hospital service lines," said Jean Chenoweth, executive director of Solucient's 100 Top Hospitals program. "Our findings show that while cardiovascular treatment in U.S. hospitals is improving each year, variation in performance is still significant. It is this year's winning heart hospitals that are setting new targets for performance improvement across the country."

Between 1997 and 2001, the percentage of African-American CABG patients receiving IMA grafts in U.S. hospitals increased from 67 percent to 76 percent, while the percentage of Caucasians receiving the procedure increased from 74 percent to 82 percent. The percentage of female CABG patients receiving the procedure in this same time period increased from 67 percent to 77 percent, compared to 77 percent to 84 percent for male patients.

Winning or "benchmark" heart hospitals named to the 100 Top Hospitals list provided CABG patients with IMA grafts at a rate nearly four percentage points higher than peer or "non-winning" hospitals (87.4 percent versus 83.6 percent).

Among the study's findings:

-- If all acute care heart hospitals performed at the same level as the nation's top heart hospitals, survival rates for cardiovascular patients could increase by 4,000 patients each year and an additional 1,400 patients could be complication-free.

-- The mortality rate for congestive heart failure at benchmark hospitals is nearly 17 percent lower than at non-winning hospitals, while the mortality rate for acute myocardial infarction, or heart attack, at benchmark hospitals is nearly nine percent lower than at peer hospitals.

-- Top hospitals have almost 19 percent lower mortality rates for CABG or coronary balloon angioplasty surgery than peer hospitals.

-- Winning hospitals are approximately 20 percent less likely than non-winners to have complications related to post-operative infections and hemorrhage for heart patients

-- Cardiovascular Patients at winning hospitals return to everyday life faster than those at non-winning hospitals. Patients at the top heart hospitals were released a half-day earlier than patients at peer hospitals.

-- Average cardiovascular-related costs for benchmark hospitals were nearly 11 percent lower than at peer hospitals.

The fifth edition of the Solucient 100 Top Hospitals: Cardiovascular Benchmarks for Success study analyzed acute care hospitals nationwide using detailed empirical performance data from 2001, including publicly available Medicare MEDPAR data and Medicare cost reports. The measures were calculated for three classes of hospitals with the following number of winners in each:

-- Teaching with Cardiovascular Residency Programs -- 30 winners

-- Teaching without Cardiovascular Residency Programs -- 40 winners

-- Community -- 30 winners

The study scored facilities according to key measures: risk-adjusted medical mortality, risk-adjusted surgical mortality, complications, percentage of CABG patients with internal mammary artery use, procedure volume, severity-adjusted average length of stay, and wage and severity-adjusted average cost.

Media Notes:

-- More information on this study and other 100 Top Hospitals research is available at www.100tophospitals.com. Copies of the 100 Top Hospitals report can be purchased by calling Solucient at 1-800-568-3282 or logging on to www.100tophospitals.com.

-- To schedule an interview with Jean Chenoweth, executive director of Solucient's 100 Top Hospital's program, contact Tarsis Lopez at 847-440-9619; tlopez@solucient.com.

Solucient's 100 Top Hospitals: Cardiovascular Benchmarks for Success

Teaching Hospitals with Cardiovascular Residencies (200 or more acute-care beds)

-- Loma Linda University Medical Center, Loma Linda, CA

-- Hospital of St. Raphael, New Haven, CT

-- Yale-New Haven Hospital, New Haven, CT

-- Mount Sinai Medical Center, Miami Beach, FL

-- Shands at the University of Florida, Gainesville, FL

-- Loyola University Medical Center, Maywood, IL

-- Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA

-- Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA

-- Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA

-- University of Massachusetts Hospital, Worcester, MA

-- Lahey Clinic Medical Center, Burlington, MA

-- Providence Hospital and Medical Centers, Southfield, MI

-- William Beaumont Hospital-Royal Oak, Royal Oak, MI

-- Pitt County Memorial Hospital, Greenville, NC

-- Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, NH

-- Hackensack University Medical Center, Hackensack, NJ

-- University Hospital, Cincinnati, OH

-- Good Samaritan Hospital, Dayton, OH

-- Ohio State University Hospital, Columbus, OH

-- University Hospitals of Cleveland, Cleveland, OH

-- Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, OH

-- Western Pennsylvania Hospital, Pittsburgh, PA

-- Presbyterian Medical Center, Philadelphia, PA

-- Miriam Hospital, Providence, RI

-- Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC

-- Baylor University Medical Center, Dallas, TX

-- Scott and White Memorial Hospital, Temple, TX

-- Memorial Hermann Hospital System, Houston, TX

-- LDS Hospital, Salt Lake City, UT

-- University of Virginia Medical Center, Charlottesville, VA

------

Teaching without Cardiovascular Residencies (200 or more acute-care beds)

-- St Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center, Phoenix, AZ

-- Orlando Regional Medical Center, Orlando, FL

-- Morton Plant Hospital, Clearwater, FL

-- Mercy Medical Center-North Iowa, Mason City, IA

-- St. Luke's Regional Medical Center, Boise, ID

-- St. Alphonsus Regional Medical Center, Boise, ID

-- Carle Foundation Hospital, Urbana, IL

-- Community Hospital East, Indianapolis, IN

-- Oakwood Hospital and Medical Center-Dearborn, Dearborn, MI

-- St. Joseph Mercy Oakland, Pontiac, MI

-- Spectrum Health - Butterworth Campus, Grand Rapids, MI

-- Borgess Medical Center, Kalamazoo, MI

-- Mount Clemens General Hospital, Mount Clemens, MI

-- North Memorial Health Care, Robbinsdale, MN

-- St. Mary's Medical Center, Duluth, MN

-- St. Cloud Hospital, St. Cloud, MN

-- Abbott Northwestern Hospital, Minneapolis, MN

-- Freeman Health System, Joplin, MO

-- St. Luke's Hospital, Chesterfield, MO

-- St. Vincent Healthcare, Billings, MT

-- Mission Hospital, Asheville, NC

-- MeritCare Health System, Fargo, ND

-- BryanLGH Medical Center East, Lincoln, NE

-- St. Peter's Hospital, Albany, NY

-- Rochester General Hospital, Rochester, NY

-- Riverside Methodist Hospital, Columbus, OH

-- Grant Medical Center, Columbus, OH

-- Akron General Medical Center, Akron, OH

-- Mount Carmel West, Columbus, OH

-- Mercy Medical Center, Canton, OH

-- Christ Hospital, Cincinnati, OH

-- York Hospital, York, PA

-- St. Luke's Hospital and Health Network, Bethlehem, PA

-- Conemaugh Memorial Medical Center, Johnstown, PA

-- St. Mark's Hospital, Salt Lake City, UT

-- Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, Norfolk, VA

-- Centra Health, Lynchburg, VA

-- Providence St. Peter Hospital, Olympia, WA

-- St Joseph's Hospital, Marshfield, WI

-- Gundersen Lutheran, La Crosse, WI

------

Community Hospitals (25 or more acute-care beds)

-- Boswell Memorial Hospital, Sun City, AZ

-- Memorial Hospital, Colorado Springs, CO

-- Charlotte Regional Medical Center, Punta Gorda, FL

-- Munroe Regional Medical Center, Ocala, FL

-- Holy Cross Hospital, Fort Lauderdale, FL

-- Sarasota Memorial Hospital, Sarasota, FL

-- Lakeland Regional Medical Center, Lakeland, FL

-- Central Florida Regional Hospital, Sanford, FL

-- Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point, Hudson, FL

-- St. Joseph's Hospital of Atlanta, Atlanta, GA

-- St. Francis Hospital and Health Center, Blue Island, IL

-- Stormont-Vail Regional HealthCare, Topeka, KS

-- Central Baptist Hospital, Lexington, KY

-- Lafayette General Medical Center, Lafayette, LA

-- Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center, Baton Rouge, LA

-- St. Joseph Medical Center, Towson, MD

-- Mercy Hospital, Coon Rapids, MN

-- Parma Community General Hospital, Parma, OH

-- Lake Hospital System, Painesville, OH

-- Baptist Hospital of East Tennessee, Knoxville, TN

-- Centennial Medical Center, Nashville,TN

-- Fort Sanders Parkwest Medical Center, Knoxville, TN

-- Good Shepherd Medical Center, Longview, TX

-- Providence Health Center, Waco, TX

-- Chippenham Medical Center/Johnston-Willis Hospital, Richmond, VA

-- Providence General Medical Center, Everett, WA

-- Overlake Hospital Medical Center, Bellevue, WA

-- Wausau Heart Institute and Wausau Hospital, Wausau, WI

-- Bellin Memorial Hospital, Green Bay, WI

-- Appleton Medical Center, Appleton, WI

------

About Solucient

Solucient is the leading source of health care business intelligence. The company provides comprehensive, results-oriented information to drive business growth, manage costs, and help deliver quality care. Solucient's expertise and proven solutions enable providers, payers, employers, and pharmaceutical companies to achieve results and realize value. For more information, visit http://www.solucient.com.

[chance33_98]

Ping!

[wku man]

Just wait 'til Jesse Jackass gets his grubby mitts on this one!

Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!

[mewzilla]

Well, I know plenty of white males who've had bypasses, and none were done this way.

[boris]

Now lemme see. Only one winner in California: Loma Linda. Uh huh. I had mine in 1999 with more advanced care at Cedars-Sinai--and IMA. UCLA does not make the "cut" (sorry). And in Maryland, the best hospital in the world, Johns Hopkins, is missing--while some "community" hospital out in the 'burbs makes it. Naturally, hick joints like the Mayo Clinic are left off the list, too. Uh huh.

Nope. Something wrong here, big time.

--Boris

[wku man]

Perhaps so, I was just pointing out that the Race-Baiter-in-Chief Jesse Jackass would love to get hold of this story. Lots of money to be made blackmailing (uh, excuse me...I meant "African-American mailing"...gotta be PC ya know!) the healthcare and insurance industries.

Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!

[from occupied ga]

World Ends Tomorrow! - Women and Minorities Hardest Hit