The predictive accuracy of the New York State coronary artery bypass surgery report-card system.

We examined the impact of New York State's public reporting system for coronary artery bypass surgery fifteen years after its launch. We found that users who picked a top-performing hospital or surgeon from the latest available report had approximately half the chance of dying as did those who picked a hospital or surgeon from the bottom quartile. Nevertheless, performance was not associated with a subsequent change in market share. Surgeons with the highest mortality rates were much more likely than other surgeons to retire or leave practice after the release of each report card.