Following our discussions below, here is the link that presents cardiac surgery results for individual doctors in Massachusetts. It covers 2002 through 2004 and presents the 30-day mortality for isolated coronary artery bypass graft procedures, and there is a risk-adjustment aspect to calculation.
Please note that the chart does not given the numerical mortality figures for each doctor. Instead, it groups doctors into three statistically valid groups: mortality significantly higher than state average; mortality the same as state average; and mortality significantly lower than state average. It also shows how many cases have been done by each doctor during this period.
There is also a link that groups this information by hospital.
I don't know about you, but I think this is pretty well done. It has the same kind of statistical validity that doctors would expect among themselves, and yet it is available to the public. It presents information in a way that would be useful to me as a consumer. (It is a bit out of date, but I am guessing physician performance usually does not change by all that much year to year.)
Now that you have seen it, do those of you who have objected below still have objections? Specifically, do you feel this would cause doctors to avoid certain cases? Do you think consumers could not understand this information?
To those of you below who wanted information, does this give you what you want?
