Chelsea and Westminster named best hospital for low mortality rates in Dr Foster Hospital Guide

Chelsea and Westminster is the only hospital in England with low mortality rates across all four mortality indicators included in the Dr Foster Hospital Guide, an annual independent healthcare survey published today (Monday 28 November).

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

Heather Lawrence, Chief Executive of Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, says: “I want to thank every member of staff at Chelsea and Westminster who has played their part in helping us to earn this independent recognition of our commitment to quality and safety.

“I welcome the publication of mortality and other indicators in the Dr Foster Hospital Guide because we know that there is always room for improvement and the Guide provides us with national benchmarks to measure our performance.

“It is important that patients are provided with information to assess how their local hospital is performing. Being more open and transparent is a priority for us at Chelsea and Westminster and the Dr Foster Hospital Guide will help patients know how we are performing.”

Examples of recent initiatives to strengthen the safety of our services include:

• Opening of an Acute Assessment Unit with 24/7 consultant cover—all patients who come into the hospital as acute admissions are assessed twice a day every day by a consultant, including out of hours and at weekends
• Routine assessments of patients’ risk of blood clots—more than 90% of patients are assessed for their risk of developing a blood clot so we can plan care to minimise this risk

Today’s Dr Foster Hospital Guide confirms Chelsea and Westminster’s reputation as one of the safest hospitals in England:

• We were among the top 10 hospitals in England for lower than expected deaths when the NHS Information Centre published the first SHMI statistics in October
• We were shortlisted for the CHKS Patient Safety Award in April based on criteria including infection and mortality rates