Pennine Acute’s in-month HSMR at 106.2 in January

A paper to the trust’s April board meeting states that Pennine Acute’s HSMR for January 2013 was 106.2. Values above 100 suggest higher than expected mortality. The trust’s 12 month rolling average HSMR was 103.

The paper adds that Dr Foster Intelligence now provides the Trust with a quarterly mortality report containing an overview of mortality using the HSMR and two other mortality rates. “The report provides recommendations for further investigation,” it states. “One such area is Fractured Neck of Femur as the Trust has a statistically significantly high HSMR for patients diagnosed with this condition.

“The Orthopaedic Directorate has recently implemented all day trauma operating at the Royal Oldham site in line with working practices at North Manchester so that the two trauma sites now have all day trauma operating 7 days per week.

“As such patients’ time to theatre will reduce, this is a significant factor for this group of patients and it is envisaged this will lead to a reduction in HSMR for this condition.”

It goes on to state that the trust is in “Phase 1” of a mortality reduction project plan, where retrospective audits have been carried out in flagged areas and data is being cleansed and re-submitted to Dr Foster.

It adds that the trust has issued reports to those consultants “who have a high HSMR and evidence will need to be provided that there is not an issue in terms of quality of care or patient safety”.