Good morning, List friends --

Think of this topic as a warm-up for Friday.

Today [Weds 3/1 ~9am] National Public Radio carried a report concerning
survival rates for certain advanced/difficult surgical procedures in
California.  The investigators compared hospitals which do a comparatively
large volume of procedures such as heart bypasses, etc.... and hospitals
which did relatively few of those same operations.

The results for the high-volume hospitals were significantly better.

According to the report, some patients choose smaller hospitals for
convenience, or because their physician has a connection there; but in
California in one year, 602 patients -- who did not survive a given
procedure in a smaller hospital -- would very probably have survived in a
hospital that handled a large volume of that procedure.

Obviously, these are statistical projections, but carefully arrived at.....
surely of great concern to the 602 California families involved.  Is there a
parallel concerning the rebuilding of waterboxer engines?  What is the
success rate for a large sample of shops doing only one or two rebuilds per
year?  Just wondering.....??

Glenn
Queenstown, MD