Analysis of regional congenital cardiac surgical outcomes in Florida using The Society of Thoracic Surgeons Congenital Heart Surgery Database

Abstract

A regional consortium of congenital heart surgery centres in Florida under the framework of the Children's Medical Services has allowed for inter-institutional collaboration with the goal of quality improvement. This experience demonstrates, first, that the database maintained by the Society of Thoracic Surgeons can provide the framework for regional analysis of outcomes, and second, that voluntary regional collaborative efforts permit the pooling of data for such analysis.