Hospital mortality rate falls

Dr Sally Bradley, Medical Director

The hospital mortality rate across the Pennine Acute Hospitals Trust – which includes the Rochdale Infirmary - has fallen.

Figures published in the Dr Foster Hospital Guide show that the Trust’s Hospital Standardised Mortality Ratio (HSMR) has fallen from 110.4 as reported in last year’s guide to 99.6 this year. The data covers the period from April 2010 – March 2011.

The Hospital Standardised Mortality Rate (HSMR) is an indicator of healthcare quality. It compares an NHS Trust’s actual number of deaths to its expected or predicted number of deaths.

HSMR is a statistical number that enables the comparison of mortality rates between hospitals. This prediction takes account of factors such as the age and sex of patients, their primary diagnosis and complicating factors, and their length of stay in hospital. Standardisation of mortality rates allows comparison between different hospitals serving different communities.

If a Trust has an HSMR of 100, this means that the number of patients who died is exactly as would be expected. A Trust’s HSMR above 100 means that more patients died than would be expected; below 100 means that fewer patients than expected died.

The Pennine Acute Hospitals Trust also runs the Royal Oldham Hospital, Fairfield General Hospital and North Manchester General Hospital.

Dr Sally Bradley, the new Medical Director at The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “Mortality across our hospitals has decreased every year since 2005. By any indicator, including Dr Foster and CHKS which we use, we have shown a huge improvement in our hospital mortality rate, particularly over the last two years. We have used these two main indicators to monitor our mortality rate; both have shown huge reductions of around 10% so we are now below or at similar level to other hospitals.

“This represents delivery of care with fewer than expected deaths across our hospitals. Sustained effort by our staff to improve clinical practice and patient safety across a whole variety of areas has led to this reduction. This is good news and a positive step in the right direction, on a journey to reduce our hospital mortality further.

“Although this is a complex area, and whilst there are differences in the way mortality is calculated, the important factor here is that all the indicators show that mortality is reducing and as a hospital trust we continue to focus our attention on ensuring our services are safe for our patients.”

Dr Bradley added: “As part of the Trust’s commitment to improving patient safety across the organisation, we have signed up to the Safety Express Collaborative and we have been chosen as a host organisation for the programme within the North West. This is a national programme involving NHS Trusts as part of the Department of Health’s Quality, Innovation, Productivity and Prevention (QIPP) safe care programme. We will lead a team of representatives from our PCTs in Bury, Oldham, Rochdale and North Manchester, towards the aim of reducing harm across the whole health economy.”