Journal of the American College of Surgeons
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Comparative Study
What are the real rates of postoperative complications: elucidating inconsistencies between administrative and clinical data sources.
Comparison of quality outcomes generated from administrative and clinical datasets have shown inconsistencies. Understanding this is important because data designed to drive performance improvement are used for public reporting of performance. We examined administrative and clinical data and 2 clinical data sources in 4 surgical morbidity outcomes. ⋯ We demonstrate considerable discordance between data sources measuring the same postoperative events. The main contributor was difference in definitions, with additional contribution from data collection and management methods. Although any of these sources can be used for their original intent of performance improvement, this study emphasizes the shortcomings of using these sources for grading performance without standardizing definitions, data collection, and management.