Audit, Quality Control, and Performance in Thoracic Surgery: A North American Perspective

Health care quality is often measured by components of structure, outcomes, and process. One way for thoracic surgeons to evaluate their practices is to compare themselves with evidence-based national guidelines. Outcomes data are often generated from entries into large patient databases. In addition to providing meaningful information regarding surgical outcomes and quality, these databases are used as the basis for risk-adjusted models to accurately predict surgical morbidity and mortality. These models can be used as auditing tools against which surgeon- and site-specific morbidity and mortality can be compared with predicted values.