Hospital mortality rate reduced

Dr Roger Prudham, Deputy Medical Director at The Trust

The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust’s hospital mortality figures show that the Trust’s Hospital Standardised Mortality Rate (HSMR) at the end of August 2013 was 82.48. Regionally, the Trust is the second highest performing Trust for low hospital mortality when compared to its other 22 peer acute hospital trusts in the North West. The Trust’s 12 month rolling HSMR was 92.94.

The number of deaths as a percentage of inpatient stays at the Trust’s four main hospitals continue to reduce month on month.

Figures to be published this week in the annual national Dr Foster Hospital Guide will confirm this improvement. It will show that using Dr Foster methodology, the Trust’s HSMR covering the period from April 2012 – March 2013 was below the 100 index. This means that fewer patients than expected died.

The Summary Hospital Mortality Indicator (SHMI) methodology covers mortality attributing to local health population and other external factors such as palliative care and deaths in community settings after discharge from hospital. The Trust’s SHMI for last year was reported as 1.06. This figure is now reducing.

Dr Roger Prudham, Deputy Medical Director at The Trust, said: “Mortality ratios are a statistical method using an index number to compare a hospital’s expected number of deaths with the actual number of deaths. Many factors contribute to patient mortality and the mortality ratio is a 'smoke detector' to highlight where attention should be focused. It 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.

“Mortality across our hospitals has decreased every year since 2005. A sustained effort and focus on quality of care by our staff to improve clinical practice and patient safety across a whole variety of areas has led to this reduction. The mortality ratio is affected both by the clinical care we provide to patients and also by the coding of diagnosis as the latter drives the calculation of the expected number of deaths.

“Whilst calculating and understanding hospital standardised mortality is complex and multi-factorial, this steady but continuous improvement in hospital mortality is excellent news of which the Trust should be proud. We must, however, continue to focus on reducing our hospital mortality to further demonstrate that our hospitals and services are safe and quality care and patient safety remains our top priority. We are looking to work more closely with colleagues in our local partner health and social care agencies and nursing homes to improve mortality in our local communities.”

The Trust recently published its five year Quality Strategy outlining its quality goals and aspirations. The Trust has set itself an aim of achieving a Trust wide HSMR of 80 within five years. The Quality Strategy can be found on the Trust website at www.pat.nhs,uk