HARRISBURG—April 13th, 2023 The Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council (PHC4) released new data today to help cancer patients, caregivers, and families make decisions about cancer surgical care in Pennsylvania.
PHC4 reports cancer surgery volumes each year, for surgeries performed at Pennsylvania hospitals, across 11 types of cancers. The types of cancer surgery included in the report are Bladder, Brain, Breast, Colon, Esophageal, Liver, Lung, Pancreatic, Prostate, Rectal, and Stomach. The data included is from July 1, 2021 through June 30, 2022, and is reported individually for each hospital. (Surgeries performed in ambulatory surgery centers are not included.)
“Between 2019 and 2022, there was a 4% decrease in surgery for these eleven cancers, but that doesn’t necessarily mean fewer diagnoses. This could reflect a change in medical management, or an increase in outpatient surgeries.” said Barry Buckingham, PHC4’s Executive Director.
The report is available on PHC4’s website at www.phc4.org. You can also link to it through social media on Facebook. PHC4 is an independent state agency charged with collecting, analyzing and reporting information, that can be used to improve the quality and restrain the cost of health care in Pennsylvania.
