Trends in Hospital Risk-Adjusted Mortality for Select Diagnoses and Procedures, 1994–2004

Excerpt

This Statistical Brief presents data from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) on changes in the rates of mortality during inpatient care. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)’s Inpatient Quality Indicators (IQIs) are used to develop in-hospital risk-adjusted death rates among adults for select diagnoses and surgical procedures for which variations in mortality between hospitals may be associated with deficiencies in the quality of care. Mortality rates for these conditions and procedures are evaluated over an 11-year period from 1994 to 2004. All differences between estimates noted in the text are statistically significant at the 0.05 level or better.