Between-Hospital Variation in Failure to Rescue After Major Surgery

What is the between-hospital variation in risk-adjusted postoperative failure-to-rescue rates in Switzerland?In this cross-sectional study of 41 506 patients including 5 years of national hospital routine data, the odds of death differed by a factor of 3.1 between the lowest- and highest-performing hospitals after accounting for measured patient-level risk factors.These findings support positioning failure to rescue as a patient safety priority and highlight the need for deeper investigation into the practices of both underperforming and overperforming hospitals.

Corresponding Author: David Schwappach, PhD, Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine, University of Bern, Mittelstrasse 43, 3012 Bern, Switzerland (david.schwappach@unibe.ch).

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