St George’s mortality rates among the lowest in England
St George’s Healthcare NHS Trust has been named as having one of the lowest mortality (death) rates in the country in an annual study published by Dr Foster, the independent healthcare intelligence group, on Monday 28th November.
The Dr Foster Hospital Guide 2011 named St George’s Healthcare among trusts with a ‘better than expected’ outcome for Hospital Standardised Mortality Ratio (HSMR). Publication of the new NHS-wide summary hospital-level mortality indicator (SHMI) also shows the trust to have ‘lower than expected’ mortality. The SHMI measures the ratio of observed deaths to expected deaths and the trust is one of 14 identified as having the lowest mortality rates in England.
Miles Scott, trust chief executive, said: “The public can take confidence in the fact that our mortality rate is significantly lower than the national average. We were one of the first healthcare organisations anywhere to monitor mortality to ensure that we could understand the death rate for every individual area of practice. Our rates are published on our website and this approach ensures that we have the clearest possible picture to help us maintain low mortality rates.
“We are also pioneering new care for life-threatening conditions such as stroke. As one of eight hyper-acute stroke units (HASUs) serving London we ensure that patients get rapid access to specialist care. Across the capital the introduction of HASUs has resulted in the numbers of patients dying within seven days of admission to hospital falling by 25 per cent.”
Notes to editors
For more information, please contact the communications team at St George’s Healthcare NHS Trust on 020 8725 5151 or emailcommunications@stgeorges.nhs.uk. Outside working hours, please page the team by calling 0844 822 2888, leaving a short message and contact details for pager SG548.
Each year, Dr Foster Intelligence aims to give patients the information they need to exercise choice of hospital with its guide, based on analysis of routine administrative data and information collected directly from acute trusts in a self-assessment survey. In 2009 St George’s Healthcare NHS Trust was named Large Trust of the Year in the guide, for maintaining high levels of patient safety.
