Alberta hospitals earn praise on new searchable database
A new searchable database that compares mortality rates, readmissions after surgeries and a host of other performance measures in most Canadian hospitals, including 95 in Alberta, will push administrators and doctors to improve care for patients, a spokesman for the Canadian Institute for Health Information says.
“When we release publicly this sort of information, health professionals do something about it,” Jeremy Veillard, vice-president of research and analysis for the institute that released its Canadian Hospital Reporting Project, said Wednesday.
“They really want to provide the best care possible, (but) sometimes they don’t have all the information they need, so we’re filling an information gap.”
The database, for instance, shows the 2010-11, 30-day, inhospital mortality rate after a major surgery for patients at the Royal Alexandra Hospital is 2.98 per 1,000 patients, lower than the national hospital average of 9.26 patients per 1,000.
That’s better than the University of Alberta Hospital’s rate of 7.77 patients dying for every 1,000.
The database also shows the two teaching hospitals have slightly higher rates of patient readmission 28 days after a stroke, with the Royal Alex readmitting 7.56 per cent and the University Hospital 7.87 per cent of the patients, compared to the Canadian average of 7.39 per cent.
“I think people will look at this and they will ask questions,” Veillard said, noting that hospitals can look to others for ideas on how to improve.
He doesn’t think patients will change their behaviour by demanding care at a different hospital, but does expect people will ask more questions.
The hospital project crunches statistics for more than 600 hospitals in Canada and provides data on 21 clinical indicators including readmission rates after hip and knee replacements, caesarean section rates, and mortality rates after strokes and heart attacks.
In general, Alberta’s hospitals fared better than the national average in seven clinical measurements, sat near the average for 12 indicators and measured lower in two categories, including 90-day readmission after knee replacements (4.14 per cent readmission compared to the Canadian average of 3.31 per cent) and obstetric trauma such as tearing after vaginal birth (at 0.61 per cent of births compared to the national 0.75 per cent of births).
Alberta hospitals ranked best in terms of spending the least amount on administration costs.
Provincial hospitals spent 3.5 per cent on administration compared to 5.9 per cent in Ontario and 5.2 per cent in Quebec.
The Canadian average is 4.8 per cent.
“What it means is that the majority of the budget allocated to hospitals is spent in care, which is good news,” Veillard said.
“What you don’t want is to have such a low percentage on administrative expenditures that your hospitals would be poorly managed.
“I think that the challenge for regional health authorities, for Alberta Health Services in that case and for the hospitals, is to find the optimal e ciency.”