We sought to determine whether there is a difference in in-hospital outcomes and costs for coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG) between the United States and Canada.
We compared the outcomes and costs of treating 12 017 consecutive patients (4698 US and 7319 Canadian patients) undergoing CABG at 5 US and 4 Canadian hospitals. Participating hospitals used the same cost accounting system to provide patient-level clinical, resource utilization, and cost-of-treatment data (excluding physicians' fees). Canadian costs were converted to US dollars using purchasing power parities.
Compared with Canadian patients, US patients were older (mean +/- SD age, 68.0 +/- 10.4 vs 63.7 +/- 9.8 years [P