Obstetricians' Complication Rates Vary By Residency Program, Study Finds

Main Category: Pregnancy / Obstetrics
Also Included In: Primary Care / General Practice;  Nursing / Midwifery;  Women's Health / Gynecology
Article Date: 01 Oct 2009 - 3:00 PDT

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Obstetrics patients treated by graduates of certain residency programs have better health outcomes than others, according to a study by the University of Pennsylvania's Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics, the New York Times reports. The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, evaluated residency programs based on rates of complications among deliveries overseen by their graduates. Researchers analyzed the records of 4.9 million deliveries in Florida and New York state from 1992 to 2007, covering 4,124 obstetricians from 107 residency programs, the Times reports.

The study divided residency programs into five groups based on the graduates' rates of patient complications, such as infections and bleeding, after both caesarean section and vaginal deliveries. About 10.3% of women whose infants were delivered by physicians in the top one-fifth of programs experienced complications, compared with 13.6% of women treated by physicians from the other programs. David Asch, executive director of the Leonard David Institute, declined to state how specific programs fared.

Asch noted that complication rates for some other types of doctors are available on the Internet, adding, "We determined that obstetrics and gynecology residency programs also differ in the quality of the physicians they produce" (Rabin, New York Times, 9/29).

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