Local hospitals 'most improved' says Dr Foster Hospital Guide 2008
18-Nov-2008
Improvements in care at the Trust have led to it being singled out by Dr Foster for making reductions in its mortality rate of around 30%, over three years.
The Trust’s Director of Nursing, Elizabeth Robb, said: “Our mortality rates were already below the national average but the sustained improvements we have made in 2007/08 puts us amongst the top acute trusts in the country for last year.”
Tom Moloney, Chief Executive of Dr Foster Intelligence, said: “We’re pleased to highlight in this year’s Hospital Guide that North West London Hospitals NHS Trust continues to reduce its mortality rate and is one of the most improved in the country. Clearly this is good news for patients and families and testament to the continued hard work of all hospital staff.”
The improvement is the result of an initiative at the Trust to introduce checklists across eight key areas such as stroke, diarrhoea and vomiting, heart failure and MRSA. The checklists set out for staff the top five things they can do that are known to improve care and save lives.
The idea was developed from the Saving 100,000 Lives campaign. Started in the United States in 2004 by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, this aimed to reduce hospitals’ deaths by 100,000 in two years by hospitals following best practice.
“We adapted this and set a target of saving 110 lives and decided to pilot checklists for eight key areas” said Elizabeth Robb. “The good news is that before we started this project our mortality rates were already below the national average. At the end of the year our mortality rate dropped from 84 to 71 (100 represents the national average expected mortality rate). If you equate this to actual lives saved it is 285.”
ENDS.
Notes to editors:
• Dr Foster, the publisher of the annual Hospital Guide, provides independent information on health services in the UK. It is now the market-leading provider of research, analysis and communication products to NHS organisations. For more information see links below. http://www.drfosterintelligence.co.uk/newsPublications/localDocuments/hospitalGuide2008.pdf
www.drfoster.co.uk or www.drfosterhealth.co.uk
• The Trust uses hospital standardised mortality ratios (HSMRs) to compare the number of expected deaths, given the types of patients it treats, with the number of actual deaths. 100 represents the national average expected mortality rate so the Trust aims to be as far below 100 as it can achieve.
• Our checklists include the top five things that we know save lives and impact on overall mortality. For example, for diarrhoea and vomiting we know that isolating patients, maintaining good hand hygiene and reviewing antibiotics will all have a positive impact. All healthcare professionals at the Trust are asked to use the check lists for their patients. Checklists cover central line asepsis, diarrhoea and vomiting, stroke, ventilator-acquired pneumonia, MRSA, heart failure, surgical site infections and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).