A REPORT PUBLISHED today by the department of health found massive variations in the mortality rates at Irish hospitals for patients who have had a heart attack.
At one hospital, the mortality rate is 21.3 per 100 cases while this number is set at just 2.1 at the hospital with the lowest rate. None of the hospitals in the Health Care Quality Indicators in the Irish Health System report are named.
It examines the number of patients who died within 30 days of being admitted.
In the report, the department said it highlights the requirement for hospitals, with guidance from the HSE, to improve the quality and accuracy of the information that they record. It also points out that there are a number of factors that could account for the differences in these mortality rates and that the aim of the report was to see how useful this data would be in measuring quality.
For stroke patients, the highest rate was 25.5 deaths per 100 and the lowest was 6.3 per 100. When adjusted for age some hospitals reported rates statistically higher than expected at the 95 per cent confidence level in the period 2008-2010, the report found. These hospitals were contacted by the Quality and Patient Safety Directorate of the HSE to highlight these issues.
The figures in the report today were from the three year period from 2008 to 2010 and the department said it plans to publish a report of quality indicators based on 2011-2013 figures later this year, which will name hospitals.
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