Mass-DAC and the Massachusetts Department of Public
Health announced on October 19, 2004 that the unadjusted mortality
rate within 30 days of isolated CABG surgery in the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts in 2002 is 2.19%. After adjusting for present risk,
it cannot be shown that statistical differences exist between projected
and expected mortality at any hospital. There were no differences
in standardized 30-day mortality incidence rates following CABG among
the thirteen cardiac surgery programs in the Commonwealth. The Massachusetts
rate is also slightly lower than in other states that are regulated
(i.e. New York State, New Jersey and Pennsylvania). The public and
technical reports are available under Reports/ Cardiac Surgery on
this website.
A Cardiac Surgery Data Manager’s Meeting is
scheduled for December 9, 2004, 10:00 am to 1:00 pm at Charlton Memorial
Hospital in Fall River. Please call Mass-DAC for further information
The Annual STS Data Manager’s Meeting has
been scheduled for September 29-October 1, 2005 in Chicago. Further
details will be available on the STS website closer to the meeting
date.
Please consider sending submissions and corrections
electronically using PGP protection software. Sending the data electronically
is simple, fast and economical. Please call Mass-DAC if you have questions
regarding PGP, what to purchase or how to use it. The PGP website
is listed under links on this website.
Mass-DAC will require that all cardiac surgeries
performed after July 1, 2004 be submitted in the 2.52 version of the
STS database. All data submissions and corrections for cardiac surgeries
prior to July 1, 2004 must be submitted on version 2.41. All corrections
to the data must be submitted in the same version as originally submitted.
Payor is frequently missing from the submissions
which will be sent back if not included. It is a required variable
for Mass-DAC. It can be inserted in either of two places:
1) In the STS file after hospital state and before date of admission
or
2) In the demographic file as the last field
The location of payor must be consistent for every submission.
