The research that I pick was calculating the lives of the patients that have congenital heart disease that can be saved by having the surgery done at the highest performing hospitals (Austin, 2017).

The data that was collected by the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) was the 30-day mortality data for congenital heart surgery patients from 61 hospitals (Austin, 2017). The sample size was not given but confidence interval was given. The results were public reported by STS on a separate website and it's separated by state (The Society of Thoracic Surgeons, 2020). This will help to look for hospitals that are highest performing with low mortality rate.

The STS assigns a star rating for each hospital, ranging from one to three stars using confidence interval:

• 1 star: 95 percent confidence interval that the O/E ratio is above 1.0
• 2 stars: 95 percent confidence interval that the O/E ratio includes 1.0
• 3 stars: 95 percent confidence interval that the O/E ratio is below 1.0

The O/E means theratio of observed over expected deaths. The confidence interval represents the rate of the highest performing hospitals. Using 95% confidence interval, the lower the number using the reference of 1.0, the better when it comes to rating hospitals.

How would you explain the O/E ratio to your patients? Where would you want this ratio to lie, and why?

(This question is based on the top)