FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. — Later this year, a one- to three-star rating system for cardiac surgeons developed by the Society for Thoracic Surgeons will appear on a Consumer Reports Web site.
The society teamed with the Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports, to disseminate rankings of U.S. programs offering coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). The ranking data comes from the Society of Thoracic Surgeons' (STS) Adult Cardiac Surgery Database, which currently gathers surgery and outcomes data from about 90% of practicing U.S. cardiac surgeons. The ranking will post at www.consumerreports.org/health
Each participating practice will receive star ratings in five categories: overall CABG performance, patient survival, avoidance of complications, the extent to which the CABG program follows recommended surgical practice, and the extent of following recommended medications. Performance of each practice in these categories is risk-adjusted, assessed as a ratio of observed relative to expected performance, and ranked relative to all other practices, said Dr. Grover, professor and chairman of surgery at the University of Colorado, Denver.