Monday, January 8, 2018

Annual deaths by hospital unit in Canada

Question:

Do we have any data on hospital deaths by unit in Canada?

Answer:
I think that it would be possible to derive that from the master file of the Discharge Abstract Database from CIHI – I think that that is accessible through RDC? You still wouldn’t necessarily know which “unit” it was (e.g., cardiology / surgery), but you would be able to distinguish emergency admissions/transfers from “routine” one, I think.

It doesn’t go down to the unit level, but CIHI has a product called hospital standardized mortality ratio – tech notes at https://www.cihi.ca/sites/default/files/document/hsmr_tech_notes_en.pdf. HMSR is one of the elements available online, publicly – from the CIHI web site - https://yourhealthsystem.cihi.ca/hsp/indepth?lang=en#/

Once you bring up a hospital, go to the bottom and “see  other indicators” – Hospital Deaths (HSMR)  (e.g., https://yourhealthsystem.cihi.ca/hsp/indepth?lang=en#/indicator/005/4/O5142/) -- but I think you need to look hospital by hospital / city by city / health region by health region…