A UCLA-led study found that 30-day mortality rates are 23% higher for patients 65 and older who are treated on a surgeon's birthday.
Older patients undergoing emergency procedures on a surgeon's birthday are more likely to die within a month than are patients who go through similar procedures on other days, according to a new peer-reviewed study in BMJ.
The UCLA-led study found that 30-day mortality rates are 23% higher for patients 65 and older who are treated on a surgeon's birthday. The researchers say the evidence is quite clear, but they don't know why, beyond speculating that surgeons may be distracted.
"Our study is the first to show the association between a surgeon's birthday and patient mortality, but further research is needed before we make a conclusion that birthdays indeed have a meaningful impact on surgeons' performance," said study author Yusuke Tsugawa, MD, an assistant professor of medicine at David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
"At this point, given that evidence is still limited, I don't think patients need to avoid a surgical procedure on the surgeon’s birthday," Tsugawa said.
The researchers looked at 30-day mortality for Medicare beneficiaries ages 65 to 99 who underwent one of 17 emergency surgical procedures from 2011 to 2014, and 981,000 surgeries performed by 48,000 surgeons. Of those, 2,064 procedures (0.2 %) were performed on the surgeons' birthdays.
After adjusting for patient characteristics and the comparing surgeons' performance on their birthday with other days, the study found a 6.9% mortality rate among patients who underwent surgeries on surgeons' birthdays, compared with a 5.6% rate among those whose underwent procedures on other days.
The gap represents a 23% difference in mortality rates between the two groups.
The researchers added caveats to their findings, acknowledging that they were unable to understand precisely what led to higher mortality among the patients in question and could not evaluate the causal link.
In addition, it's not clear if the findings apply to younger patients or to elective procedures.
“Our study is the first to show the association between a surgeon's birthday and patient mortality, but further research is needed before we make a conclusion that birthdays indeed have a meaningful impact on surgeons' performance.”
Yusuke Tsugawa, MD, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
John Commins is a content specialist and online news editor for HealthLeaders, a Simplify Compliance brand.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
The researchers looked at 30-day mortality for Medicare beneficiaries ages 65 to 99 who underwent one of 17 emergency surgical procedures from 2011 to 2014, and 981,000 surgeries performed by 48,000 surgeons. Of those, 2,064 procedures (0.2 %) were performed on the surgeons' birthdays.
After adjusting for patient characteristics and the comparing surgeons' performance on their birthday with other days, the study found a 6.9% mortality rate among patients who underwent surgeries on surgeons' birthdays, compared with a 5.6% rate among those whose underwent procedures on other days.