Contemporary impact of state certificate-of-need regulations for cardiac surgery: an analysis using the Society of Thoracic Surgeons' National Cardiac Surgery Database.

Background: Prior research using administrative data associated certificate-of-need (CON) regulation for open heart surgery with higher hospital coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) volume and lower CABG operative mortality rates in elderly patients. It is unclear whether these findings apply in a general population and after controlling for detailed clinical characteristics and region.

Methods And Results: Using the Society of Thoracic Surgeons' (STS) National Cardiac Surgery Database, we examined isolated CABG surgery volume, operative mortality, and the composite end point of operative mortality or major morbidity for the years 2000 to 2003.