Racial disparities in surgical mortality narrowing

Editor's Note

Despite concerns that quality improvement efforts may widen disparities, national racial disparities in surgical mortality are narrowing, this study finds.

Using Medicare claims data from 2005 to 2014, Harvard researchers found that, overall, national mortality trends improved for both black and white patients by 0.10% and 0.07% per year, respectively.

Reductions in mortality occurred primarily within hospitals, rather than between hospitals.

Subsets of hospitals, such as small hospitals in the Midwest or West, that did not have a high volume of black patients improved more than others.

Despite substantial attention to the greater likelihood of poor clinical outcomes among black versus white surgical patients, little is known about whether racial disparities in postoperative mortality in the United States have narrowed over time. Using nationwide Medicare inpatient claims data for the period 2005-14, we examined trends in thirty-day postoperative mortality rates in black and white patients for five high-risk and three low-risk procedures.