Bypass death study rankles California surgeons

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July 18, 2007

A new study that shows how many patients die after heart bypass surgery has many California surgeons crying foul. The new measurement does not reflect a surgeon's abilities and may scare patients away or ruin reputations because of the small data size, according to critics quoted in a San Francisco Chronicle article.

Surgeons are concerned that the public release of the data will cause surgeons to shy away from high-risk patients and procedures, which would lead to degraded care.

Prominent healthcare blog Kevin MD sees the article as evidence surgeons will walk away from difficult procedures, while the blog Running a Hospital believes that concern is overblown, and that the best surgeons will take on the toughest cases because they believe in their work.