About 30% of personal health care expenditures in the United States go towards hospital care, and the rate of growth in spending for hospital services has only recently leveled out after several years of increases following a half a decade of declining growth. Simultaneously, concerns about the quality of health care services have reached a crescendo with the Institute of Medicine's series of reports describing the problem of medical errors and the need for a complete restructuring of the health care system to improve the quality of care. Policymakers, employers, and consumers have made the quality of care in U.S. hospitals a top priority and have voiced the need to assess, monitor, track, and improve the quality of inpatient care.
Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) repair is a relatively rare procedure that requires proficiency with the use of complex equipment; and technical errors may lead to clinically significant complications, such as arrhythmias, acute myocardial infarction, colonic ischemia, and death. Better processes of care may reduce mortality for AAA repair, which represents better quality care.
AAA repair is a technically difficult procedure with a relatively high mortality rate. Higher volume hospitals have been noted to have lower mortality rates, which suggests that some differences in the processes of care between lower and higher volume hospitals result in better outcomes.
Note:
The following caveats were identified from the literature review for the "Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Repair Mortality Rate" indicator:
- Confounding biasb: Patient characteristics may substantially affect the performance of the indicator; risk adjustment is recommended.
- Unclear constructa: There is uncertainty or poor correlation with widely accepted process measures.
Refer to the original measure documentation for further details.
a - The concern is theoretical or suggested, but no specific evidence was found in the literature.
b - Indicates that the concern has been demonstrated in the literature.
