Study: In-hospital mortality rates questioned as measure of quality

Jan 4 2012

National Journal: In-Hospital Mortality Rates Not An Accurate Measure Of Care Quality
Tracking the number of patients who die in the hospital might not be the best way to gauge a hospital's quality, researchers reported on Monday. Because different hospitals have different policies on when to send patients home, it makes more sense to look at mortality over a set window, such as whether a patient is still alive 30 days from admission, they reported on Monday in the Annals of Internal Medicine (Quinton, 1/2).