Deborah medical center loses bypass mortality rate dispute
admin | January 14, 2009
The Deborah Heart and Lung Center in Browns Mills (New Jersey) has lost its dispute with the state health department over how mortality rates for coronary bypass surgery are reported to the public.
A state appeals court ruled today that the Department of Health and Senior Services could administratively alter the criteria for collecting and reporting the cardiac mortality data without following a formal rule-making process.
But an attorney for the hospital, one of 18 cardiac surgery centers in the state, said the ruling “absolutely” would be appealed to the state Supreme Court.
