Understanding Variations in Perioperative Care for Lung Cancer

Dr. Tyler Grenda, Assistant Professor at the Division of Thoracic Surgery, Department of Surgery, Sidney Kimmel Medical College, Thomas Jefferson University used Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council (PHC4) hospitalization and ambulatory procedure data to conduct a research study entitled, Understanding Variations in Perioperative Care for Lung Cancer.

Dr. Grenda explained that the data from PHC4 was important for his analysis to identify the key factors driving the wide variations in perioperative outcomes (e.g., morbidity, mortality) and to evaluate provider-level variation in risk and reliability-adjusted outcomes. The team investigated the association of perioperative outcomes and variation in utilization of services (e.g., imaging, staging studies, procedures) across the spectrum perioperative care (e.g., procedures performed or inpatient hospitalizations). The findings from this research can be used to enhance quality improvement efforts and ensure high-value care across patients.

Dr. Grenda noted, “Overall, the findings from our study demonstrated that hospitals with the best perioperative outcomes for lung cancer resection (e.g., lowest mortality) utilized fewer inpatient services in the months prior to- and following episodes related to lung cancer surgery. The PHC4 dataset was sufficient to evaluate the hypothesis for our study. In particular, having the ability to use both the inpatient discharge and ambulatory/outpatient procedure statewide databases was key in performing our study.”

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