St. Mary's Medical Center, West Palm Beach, Fla., has closed its pediatric cardiothoracic surgery program after media reports drew attention to its seemingly high mortality rates.
CNN reported this year on the deaths of at least nine children who underwent surgery in the program since 2011. That put the program's mortality rate at 12.5%, far exceeding national estimates and leading the CMS to open an investigation into the claims.
The hospital said the program's risk-adjusted mortality—which considers case severity and other inherent risk factors—was only 5.3% for the four-year period ended June 30, 2014.
“The inaccurate media reports on our program have made it significantly more challenging to build sustainable volume in our program,” St. Mary's said in a statement. “At this time we feel it is best to focus on other services needed by our community."
The hospital's elective pediatric congenital heart surgeries had been suspended in June pending a comprehensive review of the program.
St. Mary's said it is “proud of the work that has been done and the lives that have been saved,” and emphasized that the closure was the decision of the hospital and not based on the decision by or recommendation of the state of Florida or any other regulatory agency.
Some health quality experts questioned whether CNN's reported mortality rates were a fair evaluation of the program's performance without risk adjustment.
The program may also have suffered because it performed fewer than the recommended annual volume of surgeries. Death rates from pediatric heart surgery have been found to be higher in facilities performing 150 or fewer surgeries; St. Mary's program had only performed 132 separate surgical procedures on 90 patients in three years.
