Massachusetts Hospital Mortality Rate Higher Than National Average, According To Analysis

Main Category: Public Health
Article Date: 11 Dec 2007 - 8:00 PDT

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The overall mortality rate for Massachusetts hospitals in 2005 was 7% higher than the national average, according to an analysis by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, the Boston Globe reports. The analysis, based on Medicare and hospital data, calculated mortality rates using the Hospital Standardized Mortality Ratio by dividing the actual number of deaths by the number of expected deaths multiplied by 100. Researchers used demographic and health characteristics to adjust the data to allow for comparisons among hospitals.

The analysis found wide variation in mortality rates among the 56 hospitals analyzed, with mortality ratios ranging from 65 to 119. The state average ratio was 89.3 and the national average was 83.5, when the data are adjusted for a wider range of patient and demographic characteristics.

Brian Jarmon, who developed the mortality ratio methodology, said that because of Massachusetts' low level of poverty and high number of medical specialists, "you would expect [the mortality rate] to be even better than the national average." He added that hospitals might have misreported data to Medicare or "it also could be that the care is not as good."

However, Karen Nelson, a nurse and senior vice president for clinical affairs for the Massachusetts Hospital Association, said that the methodology used to conduct the analysis has not been validated by leading health quality groups as an accurate measure of hospital care. She added that the figures are of limited value and do not show mortality rates for specific conditions or procedures.

Health Care for All last week planned to send a letter to state health officials demanding that they take action immediately to improve care at hospitals with high mortality rates and that they publicly release mortality data for individual hospitals. The group also has asked health officials to determine within the next three months the most reliable mortality measure, the Globe reports (Kowalczyk, Boston Globe, 12/6).

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