‘Smoke alarm’ over hospital death rates
ALARM bells have rung over death rates at Halton and Warrington hospitals.
Data published by NHS Digital revealed 168 more patients than expected died in 2015-16, equating to a 12.4% excess.
The rate was above predicted levels for the second year running.
From 2014-16 there were 370 more deaths at Warrington And Halton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (WHH) than expected, 202 of those in 2014-15.
WHH was among eight trusts with higher-thanexpected summary hospital-level mortality indicator (SHMI) figures for two years running.
The others were Wye Valley, Medway, North Tees and Hartlepool, Tameside, South Tyneside, United Lincolnshire, and Blackpool.
Blackpool has had higher than expected SHMI rates since 2010-11.
According to guidance on the NHS Digital website, high SHMI figures ‘should not immediately be interpreted as indicating bad performance’ and instead should be viewed as a ‘smoke alarm’.
The numbers include deaths in hospital and those within 30 days of discharge.
A WHH spokeswoman said the rate was not connected to pressures on accident and emergency.
The trust said that its SHMI rate had fallen from 116 to 109 in the past year, where 100 is the expected level.
Prof Simon Constable, WHH medical director, said: “There are many ways of measuring mortality rates in hospitals.
“The SHMI is just one indicator and this is not an automatic measure of quality of care.
“A higher or lower than expected number of deaths should not immediately be interpreted as indicating poor or good performance, but should act as a signal for further investigation.
“For the period 20152016 our SHMI was ‘higher than expected’ but this does not mean that 168 patients died that should have been expected to live.
“We investigate every unexpected death via our hospital mortality group, which is led by a senior consultant.
“The vast majority of the reviews will find that the cause of death has not been correctly recorded – coded, that there has been insufficient recording of co-morbidities – ie, other conditions that may have contributed to death, or that an unclear or incomplete diagnosis has been recorded. “This affects the SHMI. “We are naturally always also looking to improve the way that we provide care.
“We have recorded a steady decline in our SHMI over the last year to a figure within the ‘as expected’ range and this has been the case since late 2015.
“This is an ongoing project and we expect to see continuing improvements over the next year. Mortality group reviews are standard practice at every hospital as recommended by NHS England, the Care Quality Commission and NHS Digital.”