High-quality multi-hospital systems achieve lower cancer surgery mortality

The study identifies that high-quality multi-hospital health systems performing major cancer surgery produced an adjusted 30-day operative mortality rate of 1.7%, compared to 3.1% in lower-quality systems. These high-quality systems typically had fewer hospitals, each conducting more procedures annually, and were geographically concentrated, reducing variation in quality between hospitals. These characteristics suggest a model for improving surgical quality and outcomes in cancer care.