A U.S. News analysis of Medicare data for a number of common procedures and conditions revealed that patients treated at hundreds of U.S. hospitals that performed small numbers of certain procedures were at much higher risk of dying or suffering significant complications. What made this story most compelling is that despite three decades of published evidence showing the relationship between volume and outcome the practice has persisted, with some hospitals doing 25 or fewer procedures over the 3-year of data we examined. We chose to focus on hip and knee replacement, because the procedures are so common and adverse events can be devastating.
