Today, the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) publicly released a new website about health system performance which can be found at www.OurHealthSystem.ca. The Niagara Health System (NHS) is very pleased to report that we are performing better than the Canadian average in the three hospital-specific indicators:
- Better than the Canadian average for Hospital Standardized Mortality Ratio (HSMR). Our HSMR continues to see steady improvement, outpacing improvements within Ontario and Canada, and bringing NHS in line with the rest of the industry;
- Better than the Canadian average for readmission rates;
- Better than the Canadian average for cost of stay.
“Our healthcare team is committed to the highest quality and safest care for all of our patients and families,” says Interim President and CEO Dr. Sue Matthews. “We have a number of quality initiatives underway that support this commitment, and we are very pleased with the progress we are making. Quality improvement is a continuous journey, and the Niagara Health System will continue to strive for optimal performance throughout this journey.”
The Hospital Deaths indicator (HSMR) tracks changes in hospital mortality rates to reduce preventable deaths in hospitals, and improve quality of care. NHS’s HSMR went down from 95 in 2011-12 to 88 in 2012-13. The average rate for Canadian hospitals for 2012-13 was 89.
NHS also did well in the other two acute-care hospital indicators reported as part of the new CIHI initiative: Quality of Care and Health Spending. In both cases, NHS was below the Canadian average for similar hospitals, 8.1% for returning to hospital or 30-day overall readmission (Quality of Care) and $4,747 for average cost of a hospital stay or cost per weighted case (Health Spending).
“The Niagara Health System welcomes the launch of CIHI’s new health system performance website,” says Dr. Matthews. “CIHI is to be commended for the work that it has done to create such a user-friendly website that helps patients and the public better understand how the health system is performing.”
For more information on NHS quality initiatives, please consult the Quality section of our website.
Media contact:
Caroline Bourque Wiley, 905-378-4647, ext. 43113; cwiley@niagarahealth.on.ca
