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Are cervical spine fusion outcomes better at hospitals ranked by
US News?
By Laura Dyrda
A
study published in the March 15 issue of Spine ex-
amines whether U.S. News & World Report hospital
rankings correlate with cervical fusion outcomes.
Study authors examined top hospitals for neurosurgery
and orthopedics ranked by U.S. News & World Report from
2010 to 2014. They pulled data from the Medicare Stan-
dard Analytic Files on 110,520 patients who underwent
one-, two- or three-level anterior cervical fusions at ranked
and unranked hospitals. The researchers then compared
90-day outcomes and costs for the hospitals.
Four findings:
1. The difference in complication rates at ranked and un-
ranked hospitals was not significant.
2. Ranked and unranked hospitals had the same revision
surgery rates.
3. Ranked hospitals had slightly lower odds of renal com-
plications than the unranked hospitals.
4. Charges for the 90-day episode of care were $17,053
more on average for the ranked hospitals. Ranked hospi-
tals also had $1,695 higher average overall costs.
"Despite the higher charges and costs of care at ranked
hospitals, these facilities appear to have similar outcomes
as compared to unranked hospitals following elective [an-
terior cervical fusions]," concluded the study authors. n
