UC Davis

The 30-day all-cause readmission rate following coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery is considered an important outcome measure for patients because higher rates can be an indicator of low quality and unnecessary health care costs. Our research uses rigorous methods to explore the impact of mandatory public reporting of all-cause readmission rates following CABG surgery in California. We used a hierarchical logistic regression model on 173, 823 CABG patient records. This model standardised outcomes across 10 U.S. states that were not previously comparable due to different CABG definitions and metrics. Additionally, in order to account for the differences in medical practice across different states, we applied a differencein-difference method to estimate the impact of public reporting. Finally, a recycled prediction method was used to estimate the number of averted readmissions following public reporting initiation in California.