SGH misses marks

A crossCanada report on hospital performance indicates Stratford General Hospital was rated quotbelow performance rangequot in 30day mortalities after heart attacks and strokes and 90day readmissions for hip replacement

SGH was within the performance range for fiveday inhospital mortalities following major surgery

The hospital performed quotabove performance rangequot based on 28day readmissions for stroke and 90day knee replacement patient and was quotwithin performance rangequot for death after major surgeries

The performance categories which look at outcomes for seven inhospital functions were recently published for hospitals across the country by the Canadian Institute for Health Information CIHI

Essentially the relative ratings are based on readmissions within a certain period of time following treatments

quotAny information that comes out like this is helpfulquot said Andrew Williams CEO of the Huron Perth Healthcare Alliance HPHA the foursite group that includes Stratford General

quotThe more we can compare ourselves the more robust the information becomes What it tends to do for us is that it will flag areas we may need to look atquot

But Williams said its really hard to draw conclusions because theres so much variability across the country including a wide range of volumes of work that can influence the results

For instance the HPHA doesnt do cardiac work but may receive the readmissions from cardiac procedures done in other hospitals Also some hospitals in the system dont have enough patient volume for comparison purposes

Still Williams said its quotvery positivequot to have the information available Comparisons are usually done provincially and within the Local Health Integration Network he noted The CIHI gives a national comparison

quotIt can flag areas we need to focus a bit more on It can identify ways we can improvequot

quotIn some areas we rate higher than the average In some we rate lower And I look at both of those in the same way We need to understand the information specifically for usquot

Williams said theres nothing in the report the HPHA has to be worried about

All of the hospitals are constantly focusing on their readmission rates he said Its one indicator that says quotWell maybe the intervention could have been done differentlyquot

The Hospital Performance Allocation Results as they are called are based on seven categories 28day readmission after AMI acute myocardial infarction or heart attack 28day readmission after stroke 90day readmission after hip replacement 90day readmission after knee replacement 30day mortality after AMI 30day mortality after stroke and fiveday mortality after major surgery

The SGH results are for 200910

Results are varied for the three other hospitals in the Huron Perth Healthcare Alliance

Clinton Public Hospital was rated below performance with a lowvolume qualifier in the four categories in which it was assessed Seaforth Community Hospital was above performance range in three of four lowvolume categories as was St Marys Memorial Hospital

Listowel Memorial Hospital not part of the HPHA is listed as above performance range in all four categories also with a lowvolume qualifier

The smaller hospitals dont perform knee and hip surgeries or other major surgeries and therefore werent assessed on those categories

Date : 15 Apr, 2012
Reference : http://www.stratfordbeaconherald.com/2012/04/14/sgh-misses-marks

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