Congenital heart diseaseCohort study
Public Reporting and Case Selection in Congenital Heart Surgery
- Retrospective cohort study
- interrupted time-series
- multicentre
Authors' conclusion
Given no change in risk-standardized mortality, the lower unadjusted mortality after public reporting in these 18 centers appears to reflect both an improvement in observed/expected mortality before reporting, along with a selection of lower-risk cases after public reporting.
Study context
- Population
- Congenital heart surgeries at 18 centres participating in the STS-CHSD public reporting program, 2016 to 2019
- Participants
- 16,401 surgeries · 18 centers
- Exposure
- Post- vs pre-public reporting
- Post-public reportingn = 6,992
- Pre-public reportingn = 9,409reference
- Outcome
- In-hospital mortality and predicted probability of mortality (case-mix complexity)
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
In-hospital mortality
Post-public reporting vs Pre-public reportingUnadjusted odds decrease (95% CI)P value
In-hospital mortality
35%(15%–50%)
P = 0.002Post-public reporting vs Pre-public reportingDecrease in predicted probability of mortality, percentage points (95% CI)P value
immediately after adoption
0.5(0.1–0.8)
P = 0.006Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
Overall in-hospital deaths
- In-hospital deaths, all cases
- 500 (3.0%)
Observed/expected mortality
- Higher than expected mortality at start of study period, declining before public reporting
Original publication
Public Reporting and Case Selection in Congenital Heart Surgery. J Am Coll Cardiol. Published 28 January 2026. doi:10.1016/j.jacc.2025.11.042
Summarised from the published abstract; every number is checked against it