On Thursday, the nonprofit Leapfrog Group and Castlight Health Incorporated unveiled the findings of an analysis about health care services. As per the report, chances of survival of any of four high-risk surgeries can differ by 23% on the selection of hospital.

One of the main reasons of the difference was hospital that a patient chooses. Leapfrog's Erica Mobley said that the hospital one is choosing can be the difference between life and death.

Dr. Ashish Jha of the Harvard School of Public Health said it is quite surprising to know that such variability exists in mortality in common surgeries. In the survey, 1,500 hospitals were involved. They were asked on four risky surgeries and number of other procedures and patient deaths.

The researchers adjusted the numbers in order to reach at the 'predicted survival' estimate for each. In the case of pancreatectomy, predicted survival rate was between 81% and 100%. Out of 487 hospitals, 203 had survival rates of at least 91.3%, which was chosen as the benchmark for quality.

For esophagectomy, the expected survival ranged from 88% to 98%. In this procedure in which all or part of esophagus, only 182 of 535 hospitals had rates of at least 91.7%. Survival for repairs of abdominal aortic aneurysm ranged from 86% to 99%. In this scenario, 268 of 792 hospitals met the benchmark of 97.3%.

For replacing the heart's aortic valve, survival ranged from 92% to 97% and only 95 of 544 hospitals have hit 95.6%. The study researchers did not evaluate which kind of hospital performed the best. But in general, those hospital excelled that performed more procedures.

Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston and the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota were among those that aced all four surgeries. Hoag Memorial in Newport Beach, California, and Morristown Medical Center in New Jersey also performed well.