Mortality rates
Dr Foster Hospital Guide 2011
The Dr Foster Hospital Guide is an annual independent healthcare survey.
Chelsea and Westminster is the only hospital in England with low mortality rates across all four mortality indicators in the Dr Foster Hospital Guide 2011—published on 28 November 2011.
The Hospital Guide says: "This is an impressive achievement and warrants a special mention."
The four mortality indicators included in the Dr Foster Hospital Guide are:
- HSMR (Hospital Standardised Mortality Ratio)—an indicator of healthcare quality that measures whether a hospital's death rate is higher or lower than expected
- SHMI (Summary Hospital-level Mortality Indicator)—a new measure of mortality developed by the NHS Information Centre with an industry-wide panel of experts that includes deaths in hospital and deaths in the 30 days after discharge from hospital
- Deaths after surgery—patients who die after developing complications following surgery
- Deaths in low risk conditions—patients who die from non-fatal conditions like asthma
The mortality measures are adjusted to take into account how likely each patient is to die based on their age, diagnosis, other diseases, urgency, gender, social deprivation and previous history or hospitalisation.
Mortality ratings
(Lower is better)
| NHS Acute Trust | HSMR | SHMI | Deaths after surgery | Deaths in low risk conditions* |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chelsea and Westminster Hospital | 85 | 78 | 29 | 0.35 |
| Average for all NHS Acute Trusts in England | 97 | 100 | 100 | 0.80 |
*per 1,000 patients
To see how all NHS Acute Trusts rate for mortality, see this BBC News article (download as CSV).
Further information
SHMI (Summary Hospital-level Mortality Indicator)
The NHS Information Centre has developed the Summary Hospital-level Mortality Indicator (SHMI) to compare the actual number of patients who die following treatment in hospital with the number who would be expected to die, given the characteristics of the patients treated there.
It differs from other mortality indicators because it considers all deaths that take place in hospital as well as those taking place within 30 days of discharge. It is therefore a new and more comprehensive picture of deaths following hospital care.
When SHMI statistics were published for the first time on 27 October 2011, Chelsea and Westminster was ranked in the top 10 hospitals in England with lower than expected deaths.
The SHMI is currently classed as 'experimental' which means its methodology may be refined in the light of feedback from trusts and other users.
