Mortality (health and wellbeing needs in South Tyneside)

The Summary Hospital Mortality Indicator (SHMI) is the ratio between the actual number of patients who die following hospitalisation at the trust and the number that would be expected to die on the basis of average England figures, given the characteristics of the patients treated there.

It includes deaths which occur in hospital and deaths which occur outside of hospital within 30 days of discharge. 

SHMI banding gives an indication for each non-specialist acute NHS trust in England how the observed number of deaths within 30 days of discharge from hospital compared to the national baseline:

The SHMI can be used by trusts to compare their mortality outcomes to the national baseline, with some caveats.  Where a trust has an 'as expected' SHMI, it is inappropriate to conclude that their SHMI is lower or higher than the national baseline, even if the number of observed deaths is smaller or larger than the number of expected deaths.

The difference between the number of observed deaths and the number of expected deaths cannot be interpreted as the number of avoidable deaths for the trust.  Whether or not a death could have been prevented can only be investigated by a detailed case-note review, the SHMI is not a direct measure of quality of care.

The expected number of deaths for each trust is not an actual count of patients, it's a statistical construct which estimates the number of deaths that may be expected at the trust on the basis of average England figures and the characteristics of the patients treated there.

A 'higher than expected' SHMI should not immediately be interpreted as indicating bad performance, it should be viewed as a 'smoke alarm' which requires further investigation by the trust.  The SHMI cannot be used to directly compare mortality outcomes between trusts and it's inappropriate to rank trusts according to their SHMI.

Instead, the SHMI banding can be used to compare mortality outcomes to the national baseline.

It's important to note that South Tyneside Hospital has a palliative care unit which provides care for the terminally ill.  This inflates the rate of deaths at the hospital.  Between April 2016 and March 2017 in England just 1.8% of people that died in hospital (or within 30 days of leaving hospital) had received speciality palliative care, in South Tyneside the rate was 14.2%. 

South Tyneside SHMI

SHMI Value:

Number of deaths: