Relationship between Patient Safety and Hospital Surgical Volume

Objective

To examine the relationship between hospital volume and in‐hospital adverse events.

Data Sources

Patient safety indicator () was used to identify hospital‐acquired adverse events in the ationwide npatient ample database in abdominal aortic aneurysm, coronary artery bypass graft, and oux‐en‐ gastric bypass from 2005 to 2008.

Study Design

In this observational study, volume thresholds were defined by mean year‐specific terciles. risk‐adjusted rates were analyzed by volume tercile for each procedure.

Principal Findings

Overall, hospital volume was inversely related to preventable adverse events. High‐volume hospitals had significantly lower risk‐adjusted rates compared to lower volume hospitals ( < .05).

Conclusion

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 rates for three common surgical procedures and highlights areas of focus for future studies to identify pathways to reduce hospital‐acquired events.