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Background: The Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) Adult Cardiac Surgery Database (ACSD) has been successfully linked to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) Medicare database, thereby facilitating comparative effectiveness research and providing information about long-term follow-up and cost. The present study uses this link to determine contemporary completeness, penetration, and representativeness of the STS ACSD., Methods: Using variables common to both STS and CMS databases, STS operations were linked to CMS data for all CMS coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery hospitalizations discharged between 2000 and 2012, inclusive. For each CMS CABG hospitalization, it was determined whether a matching STS record existed., Results: Center-level penetration (number of CMS sites with at least one matched STS participant divided by the total number of CMS CABG sites) increased from 45% in 2000 to 90% in 2012. In 2012, 973 of 1,081 CMS CABG sites (90%) were linked to an STS site. Patient-level penetration (number of CMS CABG hospitalizations done at STS sites divided by the total number of CMS CABG hospitalizations) increased from 51% in 2000 to 94% in 2012. In 2012, 71,634 of 76,072 CMS CABG hospitalizations (94%) occurred at an STS site. Completeness of case inclusion at STS sites (number of CMS CABG cases at STS sites linked to STS records divided by the total number of CMS CABG cases at STS sites) increased from 88% in 2000 to 98% in 2012. In 2012, 69,213 of 70,932 CMS CABG hospitalizations at STS sites (98%) were linked to an STS record., Conclusions: Linkage of STS and CMS databases demonstrates high and increasing penetration and completeness of the STS database. Linking STS and CMS data facilitates studying long-term outcomes and costs of cardiothoracic surgery., (Copyright © 2016 The Society of Thoracic Surgeons. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) National Database is the foundation for most of the Society's quality, research, and patient safety activities. Beginning in January 2016 and repeating each year, The Annals of Thoracic Surgery will publish a monthly Database series of scholarly articles on outcomes analysis, quality improvement, and patient safety. Six articles will be directly derived from the STS National Database and will be published every other month: three articles on outcomes and quality (one each from the STS Adult Cardiac Surgery Database, the STS Congenital Heart Surgery Database, and the STS General Thoracic Surgery Database), and three articles on research (one from each of these three specialty databases). These six articles will alternate with five additional articles on topics related to patient safety. The final article, to be published in December, will provide a summary of the prior 11 manuscripts. This series will allow STS and its Workforces on National Databases, Research Development, and Patient Safety to convey timely information aimed at improving the quality and safety of cardiothoracic surgery., (Copyright © 2015 The Society of Thoracic Surgeons. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) are at risk for a variety of infections. Investigators have focused on predictors of these adverse sequelae, but less attention has been focused on characterizing hospital-level variability in these outcomes., Methods: Between July 2011 and December 2013, The Society of Thoracic Surgeons Adult Cardiac Surgery Database shows 365,686 patients underwent isolated CABG in 1,084 hospitals. Hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) were defined as pneumonia, sepsis/septicemia, deep sternal wound infection/mediastinitis, vein harvest/cannulation site infection, or thoracotomy infection. Hospitals were ranked by their HAI rate as low (≤ 10th percentile), medium (10th to 90th percentile), and high (>90th percentile). Differences in perioperative factors and composite morbidity and mortality end points across these groups were determined using the Wilcoxon rank sum and χ(2) tests., Results: HAIs occurred among 3.97% of patients overall, but rates varied across hospital groups (low: <0.84%, medium: 0.84% to 8.41%, high: >8.41%). Pneumonia (2.98%) was the most common HAI, followed by sepsis/septicemia (0.84%). Patients at high-rate hospitals more often smoked, had diabetes, chronic lung disease, New York Heart Association Functional Classification III to IV, and received blood products (p < 0.001); however, they less often were prescribed the appropriate antibiotics (p < 0.001). Major morbidity and mortality occurred among 12.3% of patients, although this varied by hospital group (low: 8.6%, medium: 12.3%, high: 17.9%; p < 0.001)., Conclusions: Substantial hospital-level variation exists in postoperative HAIs among patients undergoing CABG, driven predominantly by pneumonia. Given the relatively small absolute differences in comorbidities across hospital groups, our findings suggest factors other than case mix may explain the observed variation in HAI rates., (Copyright © 2015 The Society of Thoracic Surgeons. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Purpose: The Society of Thoracic Surgeons Congenital Heart Surgery Database (STS-CHSD) is the largest Registry in the world of patients who have undergone congenital and pediatric cardiac surgical operations. The Congenital Heart Surgeons' Society Database (CHSS-D) is an Academic Database designed for specialized detailed analyses of specific congenital cardiac malformations and related treatment strategies. The goal of this project was to create a link between the STS-CHSD and the CHSS-D in order to facilitate studies not possible using either individual database alone and to help identify patients who are potentially eligible for enrollment in CHSS studies., Methods: Centers were classified on the basis of participation in the STS-CHSD, the CHSS-D, or both. Five matrices, based on CHSS inclusionary criteria and STS-CHSD codes, were created to facilitate the automated identification of patients in the STS-CHSD who meet eligibility criteria for the five active CHSS studies. The matrices were evaluated with a manual adjudication process and were iteratively refined. The sensitivity and specificity of the original matrices and the refined matrices were assessed., Results: In January 2012, a total of 100 centers participated in the STS-CHSD and 74 centers participated in the CHSS. A total of 70 centers participate in both and 40 of these 70 agreed to participate in this linkage project. The manual adjudication process and the refinement of the matrices resulted in an increase in the sensitivity of the matrices from 93% to 100% and an increase in the specificity of the matrices from 94% to 98%., Conclusion: Matrices were created to facilitate the automated identification of patients potentially eligible for the five active CHSS studies using the STS-CHSD. These matrices have a sensitivity of 100% and a specificity of 98%. In addition to facilitating identification of patients potentially eligible for enrollment in CHSS studies, these matrices will allow (1) estimation of the denominator of patients potentially eligible for CHSS studies and (2) comparison of eligible and enrolled patients to potentially eligible and not enrolled patients to assess the generalizability of CHSS studies.

Purpose: A link has been created between the Society of Thoracic Surgeons Congenital Heart Surgery Database (STS-CHSD) and the Congenital Heart Surgeons' Society Database (CHSS-D). Five matrices have been created that facilitate the automated identification of patients who are potentially eligible for the five active CHSS studies using the STS-CHSD. These matrices are now used to (1) estimate the denominator of patients eligible for CHSS studies and (2) compare "eligible and enrolled patients" to "potentially eligible and not enrolled patients" to assess the generalizability of CHSS studies., Methods: The matrices were applied to 40 consenting institutions that participate in both the STS-CHSD and the CHSS to (1) estimate the denominator of patients that are potentially eligible for CHSS studies, (2) estimate the completeness of enrollment of patients eligible for CHSS studies among all CHSS sites, (3) estimate the completeness of enrollment of patients eligible for CHSS studies among those CHSS institutions participating in each CHSS cohort study, and (4) compare "eligible and enrolled patients" to "potentially eligible and not enrolled patients" to assess the generalizability of CHSS studies. The matrices were applied to all participants in the STS-CHSD to identify patients who underwent frequently performed operations and compare "eligible and enrolled patients" to "potentially eligible and not enrolled patients" in following five domains: (1) age at surgery, (2) gender, (3) race, (4) discharge mortality, and (5) postoperative length of stay. Completeness of enrollment was defined as the number of actually enrolled patients divided by the number of patients identified as being potentially eligible for enrollment., Results: For the CHSS Critical Left Ventricular Outflow Tract Study (LVOTO) study, for the Norwood procedure, completeness of enrollment at centers actively participating in the LVOTO study was 34%. For the Norwood operation, discharge mortality was 15% among 227 enrolled patients and 16% among 1768 nonenrolled potentially eligible patients from the 40 consenting institutions. Median postoperative length of stay was 31 days and 26 days for these enrolled and nonenrolled patients. For the CHSS anomalous aortic origin of a coronary artery (AAOCA) study, for AAOCA repair, completeness of enrollment at centers actively participating in the AAOCA study was 40%., Conclusion: Determination of the denominator of patients eligible for CHSS studies and comparison of "eligible and enrolled patients" to "potentially eligible and not enrolled patients" provides an estimate of the extent to which patients in CHSS studies are representative of the overall population of eligible patients; however, opportunities exist to improve enrollment.

Aims: The Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) National Database collects detailed clinical information on patients undergoing adult cardiac, paediatric and congenital cardiac, and general thoracic surgical operations. These data are used to support risk-adjusted, nationally benchmarked performance assessment and feedback; voluntary public reporting; quality improvement initiatives; guideline development; appropriateness determination; shared decision making; research using cross-sectional and longitudinal registry linkages; comparative effectiveness studies; government collaborations including postmarket surveillance; regulatory compliance and reimbursement strategies., Interventions: All database participants receive feedback reports which they may voluntarily share with their hospitals or payers, or publicly report. STS analyses are regularly used as the basis for local, regional and national quality improvement efforts., Population: More than 90% of adult cardiac programmes in the USA participate, as do the majority of paediatric cardiac programmes, and general thoracic participation continues to increase. Since the inception of the Database in 1989, more than 5 million patient records have been submitted., Baseline Data: Each of the three subspecialty databases includes several hundred variables that characterise patient demographics, diagnosis, medical history, clinical risk factors and urgency of presentation, operative details and postoperative course including adverse outcomes., Data Capture: Data are entered by trained data abstractors and by the care team, using detailed data specifications for each element., Data Quality: Quality and consistency checks assure accurate and complete data, missing data are rare, and audits are performed annually of selected participant sites., Endpoints: All major outcomes are reported including complications, status at discharge and mortality., Data Access: Applications for STS Database participants to use aggregate national data for research are available at http://www.sts.org/quality-research-patient-safety/research/publications-and-research/access-data-sts-national-database.

Objectives: The Society of Thoracic Surgeons Adult Cardiac Surgery Database has been linked to the Social Security Death Master File to verify "life status" and evaluate long-term surgical outcomes. The objective of this study is explore practical applications of the linkage of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons Adult Cardiac Surgery Database to Social Securtiy Death Master File, including the use of the Social Securtiy Death Master File to examine the accuracy of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons 30-day mortality data., Methods: On January 1, 2008, the Society of Thoracic Surgeons Adult Cardiac Surgery Database began collecting Social Security numbers in its new version 2.61. This study includes all Society of Thoracic Surgeons Adult Cardiac Surgery Database records for operations with nonmissing Social Security numbers between January 1, 2008, and December 31, 2010, inclusive. To match records between the Society of Thoracic Surgeons Adult Cardiac Surgery Database and the Social Security Death Master File, we used a combined probabilistic and deterministic matching rule with reported high sensitivity and nearly perfect specificity., Results: Between January 1, 2008, and December 31, 2010, the Society of Thoracic Surgeons Adult Cardiac Surgery Database collected data for 870,406 operations. Social Security numbers were available for 541,953 operations and unavailable for 328,453 operations. According to the Society of Thoracic Surgeons Adult Cardiac Surgery Database, the 30-day mortality rate was 17,757/541,953 = 3.3%. Linkage to the Social Security Death Master File identified 16,565 cases of suspected 30-day deaths (3.1%). Of these, 14,983 were recorded as 30-day deaths in the Society of Thoracic Surgeons database (relative sensitivity = 90.4%). Relative sensitivity was 98.8% (12,863/13,014) for suspected 30-day deaths occurring before discharge and 59.7% (2120/3551) for suspected 30-day deaths occurring after discharge., Conclusions: Linkage to the Social Security Death Master File confirms the accuracy of data describing "mortality within 30 days of surgery" in the Society of Thoracic Surgeons Adult Cardiac Surgery Database. The Society of Thoracic Surgeons and Social Security Death Master File link reveals that capture of 30-day deaths occurring before discharge is highly accurate, and that these in-hospital deaths represent the majority (79% [13,014/16,565]) of all 30-day deaths. Capture of the remaining 30-day deaths occurring after discharge is less complete and needs improvement. Efforts continue to encourage Society of Thoracic Surgeons Database participants to submit Social Security numbers to the Database, thereby enhancing accurate determination of 30-day life status. The Society of Thoracic Surgeons and Social Security Death Master File linkage can facilitate ongoing refinement of mortality reporting., (Copyright © 2013 The American Association for Thoracic Surgery. Published by Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.)