Benchmarking cardiac surgery: a regional initiative to improve outcomes. Interview by Reggi Veatch

Many of the clinical benchmarking projects featured in the Lead Story are designed to produce quick results. The Northern New England Cardiovascular Disease Study Group (NNE), by contrast, is a long-term effort to improve patients' functional health status. Formed in 1987, NNE is a voluntary consortium comprising all providers of open heart surgery in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont--five facilities and 28 surgeons. Although NNE is just beginning to focus on best practices within the region, its early benchmarking efforts have produced a collaborative environment in which clinical information is now readily shared. Because of this, its accomplishments have been striking: the creation of a database that includes information on more than 18,000 patients; the development of a highly accurate mortality prediction tool for patients facing coronary bypass surgery; and a 24 percent decrease in regional operative mortality following coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery.