Relationship between Patient Safety and Hospital Surgical Volume

Abstract

These data support the relationship between hospital volume and quality health care delivery in select surgical cases. This study highlights differences between hospital volume and risk-adjusted PSI rates for three common surgical procedures and highlights areas of focus for future studies to identify pathways to reduce hospital-acquired events.

Analysis of patient injury based on anesthesiology closed claims data from a major malpractice insurer

“…However, even though not risk adjusted for patient comorbidities, it was a surprising finding that the hospitals with fewer than 100 beds showed the highest mortality and nerve damage claim rates. This is supported by previously published reports showing that hospital volume was inversely related to preventable adverse events , …”

Five years of treatment for retinopathy of prematurity in Sweden: results from SWEDROP, a national quality register

“…Only a small number of surgeons performed a large number of treatments, including the few vitrectomies, while 15 of the surgeons performed 10 or less treatments during the 5-year study period. A relationship between surgical volume in general and positive outcome is well-known14 and is applicable also in ophthalmology, as illustrated by Bell et al ,15 who found a strong relationship between annual surgeon volume of cataract procedures and outcome, also regarding very high-volume surgeons. Furthermore, it is reported that there is a significant learning curve for laser treatment in prematurely born children 16.…”

The Association of Nurse-to-Patient Ratio with Mortality and Preventable Complications Following Aortic Valve Replacement

“…In 2010, hospitals were designated as HVH if they performed >33 AVR procedures and LVH if <13. For trend analysis, hospital volume was divided into terciles based on the median total number of AVR procedures performed each year with the median of each tercile identified by year, a method previously used to report the quality‐volume relationship . There are approximately 33% of all hospitals in each volume tercile.…”