Publication, Part of Archived Compendium - Hospital care indicators
Archived deaths within 30 days of a hospital procedure or of an emergency admission to hospital, financial year 2009/10
Summary
hese mortality indicators provide information to help the NHS monitor success in preventing potentially avoidable deaths following hospital treatment.
The National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death (NCEPOD) have, over many years, consistently shown that some deaths are associated with shortcomings in health care. The NHS may be helped to prevent such potentially avoidable deaths by seeing comparative figures and learning lessons from the confidential enquiries, and from the experience of hospitals with low death rates.
The indicators presented measure mortality rates for patients, admitted for certain conditions or procedures, where death occurred either in hospital or within 30 days post discharge
Data are presented for the latest 10 year period (2000/01 to 2009/10), and in separate tables for females, males, and persons.
Highlights
Key Facts
There have been statistically significant year-on-year falls, across the 10-year period, in all the mortality rates analysed, except for fractured proximal femur which has not changed significantly over time.
Mortality rates were highest among patients admitted as an emergency for strokes followed by fractured proximal femur and heart attacks.
Mortality rates were significantly lower for the operative procedures analysed than for the emergency admissions included.
In the 2009/10 financial year:
The mortality rate of patients admitted as an emergency for stroke was almost three times the rate for fractured proximal femur and four times the rate for myocardial infarction.
The mortality rate of patients admitted for operative procedures was highest for non-elective surgery at over twice the rate for coronary artery bypass graft.
Mortality rates were significantly higher for women than for men for stroke and coronary artery bypass graft and the converse for fractured proximal femur and non-elective surgery. There was no significant difference in the myocardial infarction mortality rates for men and women.
Cautionary notes on interpretation
A number of factors outside the control of hospitals, such as the socio-economic mix of local populations and events prior to hospitalisation, may contribute to the variation shown by the indicators. Differences in case-mix, severity of illness, comorbidities and other potential risk factors also contribute to the variation.
The patterns of providing care may vary between NHS hospital trusts in terms of: extent of treatment in primary care settings; referral policies and practices; and hospital admission policies and practices. Variation between hospitals in average length of stay may also lead to variation between hospitals in the proportion of deaths occurring in hospital as opposed to in the community after discharge from hospital.
Some deaths may be potentially avoidable and a result of poor treatment in hospital, or poor or badly organised rehabilitation and support services when a person is transferred home following treatment. This analysis does not attempt to identify whether the deaths were avoidable
Resources
Last edited: 15 September 2020 4:14 pm