UK: NHS to introduce new hospital mortality calculation method

The Department of Health has provided details of its new method of calculating and using hospital mortality ratios, which is designed to provide greater clarity when assessing care quality. The UK government is introducing the Summary Hospital-level Mortality Indicator (SHMI) method, which will compare the number of deaths occurring in hospitals to an estimate of how many might have been expected, based on national data and patient characteristics. This indicator will be used as a means of understanding trends associated with hospital deaths and as a trigger for investigations of potential problems, though it will be only one of a number of factors to be assessed.