More than 1,000 U.S. hospitals perform heart surgery, and about half voluntarily share their complication and mortality rates with Consumer Reports, but many hospitals still don’t make heart surgery success rates readily available to patients. Public reporting not only provides vital information to patients about where to get heart surgery but also encourages hospitals to improve, “by comparing them to their peers and showing them where they are falling short,” writes Consumer Reports. Transparency and sharing of outcomes is a professional ethical responsibility.
Read more: http://www.consumerreports.org/heart-surgery/why-hospitals-need-to-share-surgery-success-data/