The number of unexpected hospital deaths across Canada has decreased since public reporting on the issue began in 2007, new data indicates.
The Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) revealed Tuesday that out of the 83 Canadian hospitals it tracks, 47 saw a decrease in the number of unexpected hospital deaths in the past five years. The study did not include Quebec hospitals.
Unexpected hospital deaths refer to the total number of deaths in a facility over a given period, compared to what’s expected during that same period.
While variations occur from region to region and across Canada, CIHI Director of Health System Performance Kira Leeb said the trend suggests improvement in patient care.
“We’re pretty happy with the results this year,” said Leeb in an interview with CTV News. “Particularly … in some ways making progress in some places we haven’t made progress before.”
CIHI found that Canadian hospitals have reduced the mortality rate when it comes to a number of leading causes of hospital deaths, including heart attack (down 19%), sepsis (down 10%) and heart failure (down 5%). Leeb said the CIHI is particularly impressed with the reduction in sepsis-related deaths, as hospitals have struggled with infection-related deaths for some time.
“We’ve heard from our hospitals before that they’ve had trouble making strides with sepsis mortality,” said Leeb. “We’re showing a decrease in sepsis morality -- about ten per cent -- which is great news.”
The leading causes of hospital deaths remained largely the same from 2009 to 2013, according to CIHI: stroke, heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, pneumonia, sepsis and heart attack.
CIHI said the reporting of hospital deaths has been valuable for hospitals, especially those that experience a disproportionate number of deaths from certain causes.
“Some hospitals may have particular issues around sepsis or may have particular issues around stroke,” said Leeb. “What this measure allows them to do is to look at those specific care processes around those specific patients to see what they can do to improve them.”
Jeremy Veillard, CIHI’s vice-president of research and analysis, said Canada’s reduction in hospital deaths is consistent with the experience of hospitals in other countries, such as the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, since they began reporting on the issue.
CIHI’s new data on hospital deaths can accessed by the general public on the institute’s Your Health System web tool, which allows users to search a specific province, territory, region, city or hospital for 37 health indicators. In addition to hospital deaths, those indicators include emergency wait times, life expectancy at birth and repeat hospital stays for mental illness.
