Winta T. Mehtsun

Surgical never events in the United States.

BACKGROUND Surgical never events are being used increasingly as quality metrics in health care in the United States. However, little is known about their costs to the health care system, the outcomes of patients, or the characteristics of the providers involved. We designed a study to describe the number and magnitude of paid malpractice claims for surgical never events, as well as associated patient and provider characteristics. METHODS We used the National Practitioner Data Bank, a federal repository of medical malpractice claims, to identify malpractice settlements and judgments of surgical never events, including retained foreign bodies, wrong-site, wrong-patient, and wrong-procedure surgery. Payment amounts, patient outcomes, and provider characteristics were evaluated. RESULTS We identified a total of 9,744 paid malpractice settlement and judgments for surgical never events occurring between 1990 and 2010. Malpractice payments for surgical never events totaled

Catastrophic medical malpractice payouts in the United States.

1.3 billion. Mortality occurred in 6.6% of patients, permanent injury in 32.9%, and temporary injury in 59.2%. Based on literature rates of surgical adverse events resulting in paid malpractice claims, we estimated that 4,082 surgical never event claims occur each year in the United States. Increased payments were associated with severe patient outcomes and claims involving a physician with multiple malpractice reports. Of physicians named in a surgical never event claim, 12.4% were later named in at least 1 future surgical never event claim. CONCLUSION Surgical never events are costly to the health care system and are associated with serious harm to patients. Patient and provider characteristics may help to guide prevention strategies.

Assessing the surgical and obstetrics-gynecology workload of medical officers: findings from 10 district hospitals in Ghana.

&NA; Catastrophic medical malpractice payouts,

Is Annual Volume Enough? The Role of Experience and Specialization on Inpatient Mortality After Hepatectomy

1 million or greater, greatly influence physicians’ practice, hospital policy, and discussions of healthcare reform. However, little is known about the specific characteristics and overall cost burden of these payouts. We reviewed all paid malpractice claims nationwide using the National Practitioner Data Bank over a 7‐year period (2004–2010) and used multivariate regression to identify risk factors for catastrophic and increased overall payouts. Claims with catastrophic payouts represented 7.9% (6,130/77,621) of all paid claims. Factors most associated with catastrophic payouts were patient age less than 1 year; quadriplegia, brain damage, or lifelong care; and anesthesia allegation group. Compared with court judgments, settlement was associated with decreased odds of a catastrophic payout (odds ratio, 0.31; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.22–0.42) and lower estimated average payouts (

Age and sex of surgeons and mortality of older surgical patients: observational study

124,863; 95% CI,

Unintended Consequences of the 30-Day Mortality Metric: Fact or Fiction

101,509–144,992). A physicians years in practice and previous paid claims history had no effect on the odds of a catastrophic payout. Catastrophic payouts averaged

Ratio of Cesarean Sections to Total Procedures as a Marker of District Hospital Trauma Capacity

1.4 billion per year or 0.05% of the National Health Expenditures. Preventing catastrophic malpractice payouts should be only one aspect of comprehensive patient safety and quality improvement strategies. Future studies should evaluate the benefits of targeted interventions based on specific patient safety event characteristics.

Reappraisal of Staging Laparoscopy for Patients with Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma: A Contemporary Analysis of 1001 Patients

HYPOTHESIS Surgical and obstetrics-gynecology (Ob-Gyn) workload of medical officers (MOs) is substantial and may inform policies for training investment and surveillance to strengthen surgical care at district hospitals in Ghana. DESIGN Observational study. SETTING Academic research. PARTICIPANTS Using standardized criteria, 12 trained on-site observers assessed the surgical and Ob-Gyn workload of MOs at 10 district hospitals in each of 10 administrative regions in Ghana, West Africa. The number of patients seen by MOs and the time spent managing each patient were recorded. According to each patients diagnosis, the encounters were categorized as medical/nonsurgical, Ob-Gyn, or surgical. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES The proportions of patients having Ob-Gyn and surgical conditions and the time expended providing care to Ob-Gyn and surgical patients. RESULTS Of the observed patient encounters, 1600 (64.5%) were classified as medical or nonsurgical, 514 (20.7%) as Ob-Gyn, and 368 (14.8%) as surgical (9.0% nontrauma and 5.8% trauma). The most common diagnosis among Ob-Gyn patients was obstetric complication requiring cesarean section. The most common diagnosis among surgical patients was inguinal hernia. Medical officers devoted 24.8% of their time to managing Ob-Gyn patients and 18.9% to managing surgical patients (which included 5.4% for the management of traumatic injuries). CONCLUSIONS Surgical and Ob-Gyn patients represent a substantial proportion of the workload among MOs at district hospitals in Ghana. Strategies to increase surgical capacity at these facilities must include equipping MOs with the appropriate training and resources to address the significant surgical and Ob-Gyn workload they face.

National trends in readmission following inpatient surgery in the hospital readmissions reduction program era

Objective: To investigate the effect of subspecialty practice and experience on the relationship between annual volume and inpatient mortality after hepatic resection. Background: The impact of annual surgical volume on postoperative outcomes has been extensively examined. However, the impact of cumulative surgeon experience and specialty training on this relationship warrants investigation. Methods: The New York Statewide Planning and Research Cooperative System inpatient database was queried for patients’ ≥18 years who underwent wedge hepatectomy or lobectomy from 2000 to 2014. Primary exposures included annual surgeon volume, surgeon experience (early vs late career), and surgical specialization—categorized as general surgery (GS), surgical oncology (SO), and transplant (TS). Primary endpoint was inpatient mortality. Hierarchical logistic regression was performed accounting for correlation at the level of the surgeon and the hospital, and adjusting for patient demographics, comorbidities, presence of cirrhosis, and annual surgical hospital volume. Results: A total of 13,467 cases were analyzed. Overall inpatient mortality was 2.35%. On unadjusted analysis, late career surgeons had a mortality rate of 2.62% versus 1.97% for early career surgeons. GS had a mortality rate of 2.98% compared with 1.68% for SO and 2.67% for TS. Once risk-adjusted, annual volume was associated with reduced mortality only among early-career surgeons (odds ratio 0.82, P = 0.001) and general surgeons (odds ratio 0.65, P = 0.002). No volume effect was seen among late-career or specialty-trained surgeons. Conclusions: Annual volume alone likely contributes only a partial assessment of the volume-outcome relationship. In patients undergoing hepatic resection, increased annual volume did not confer a mortality benefit on subspecialty surgeons or late career surgeons.

Assessing the Surgical and Obstetrics-Gynecology Workload of Medical Officers

Abstract Objective To investigate whether patients’ mortality differs according to the age and sex of surgeons. Design Observational study. Setting US acute care hospitals. Participants 100% of Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries aged 65-99 years who underwent one of 20 major non-elective surgeries between 2011 and 2014. Main outcome measure Operative mortality rate of patients, defined as death during hospital admission or within 30 days of the operative procedure, after adjustment for patients’ and surgeons’ characteristics and indicator variables for hospitals. Results 892 187 patients who were treated by 45 826 surgeons were included. Patients’ mortality was lower for older surgeons than for younger surgeons: the adjusted operative mortality rates were 6.6% (95% confidence interval 6.5% to 6.7%), 6.5% (6.4% to 6.6%), 6.4% (6.3% to 6.5%), and 6.3% (6.2% to 6.5%) for surgeons aged under 40 years, 40-49 years, 50-59 years, and 60 years or over, respectively (P for trend=0.001). There was no evidence that adjusted operative mortality differed between patients treated by female versus male surgeons (adjusted mortality 6.3% for female surgeons versus 6.5% for male surgeons; adjusted odds ratio 0.97, 95% confidence interval 0.93 to 1.01). After stratification by sex of surgeon, patients’ mortality declined with age of surgeon for both male and female surgeons (except for female surgeons aged 60 or older); female surgeons in their 50s had the lowest operative mortality. Conclusion Using national data on Medicare beneficiaries in the US, this study found that patients treated by older surgeons had lower mortality than patients treated by younger surgeons. There was no evidence that operative mortality differed between male and female surgeons.