A new study has found that older women who need heart bypass surgery are more likely than men to be treated at hospitals with lower quality care.
This may explain why more women die after this type of surgery compared to men. The research was done by Michigan Medicine and published in the medical journal JAMA Network Open.
The researchers looked at nearly 450,000 Medicare patients who had heart bypass surgery between 2015 and 2020. This surgery, known as coronary artery bypass grafting or CABG, is done to improve blood flow to the heart by going around blocked arteries. It is a common way to treat serious heart disease.
The study found that women were about 26% more likely than men to have their surgery at hospitals with the highest death rates after surgery.
At these lower-quality hospitals, 7% of women died within 30 days of their operation, compared to about 5% of men. When comparing high-quality and low-quality hospitals, the gap in death rates between men and women doubled.
Dr. Catherine Wagner, the main author of the study, is a surgery resident at the University of Michigan. She said, “Women are more likely to die after heart bypass surgery and are also more likely to be treated at low-quality hospitals. We need to make sure women are referred to better hospitals to reduce this gap.”
The study also found that women were more likely than men to have unplanned hospital stays before their surgery and had more existing health problems. In past research, women were also shown to be referred for heart surgery later than men. This delay could be due to biological differences between men and women, which are not yet fully understood.
Hospitals that do more heart bypass surgeries each year often have better results, especially for patients who have more serious health risks.
Dr. Andrew Ibrahim, another author of the study, said, “The differences in outcomes are probably caused by both the patient’s condition and the quality of care at each hospital. We can help close the gap by sending more women to high-quality hospitals and encouraging more women to become heart surgeons.”
In March 2023, a nationwide study showed that the death rate for women having heart bypass surgery increased from 2011 to 2020. This led to a strong call to action from medical experts.
Later that year, the White House started the first-ever Initiative on Women’s Health to support new research and better care. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services also promised $100 million to improve women’s health research.
Even though results have improved in some areas, Dr. Wagner says there is still a lot of work to do. She explained that better care at lower-quality hospitals and fairer referrals for women can help close the gap.
“It’s an exciting time for women’s heart health research,” she said. “With more focus on this issue, we can improve outcomes for women and help all patients get better care.”
The study was supported by the University of Michigan Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation. The results were published in JAMA Network Open.
If you care about heart disease, please read studies that herbal supplements could harm your heart rhythm, and how eating eggs can help reduce heart disease risk.
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