Sunrise Health Region is among the lowest Hospital Standardized Mortality Ratio (HSMR) rates in the country.
The Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) report, released Dec 13, studied the number of deaths in hospitals across Canada including all hospitals in the Sunrise Health Region.
CIHI standardized the data it collected adjusting for several factors which may affect in-hospital death rates such as age, sex, diagnoses and admission status.
A mortality ratio of 100 is the Canadian average.
A ratio of less than 100 indicates results better than the national average. The HSMR of 74 for Sunrise Health Region was among the lowest in the country.
"Patient safety is our priority. The HSMR is a high level patient safety measure that helps us to monitor the effectiveness of safety improvements," said Suann Laurent, President and Chief Executive Officer for Sunrise Health Region in a prepared release.
Initiatives such as the Surgical Safety Checklist, medication reconciliation, and good hand hygiene practices are examples of safety improvement initiatives being implemented.
"Being a top performer is an indication that we are on the right path and further drives our determination to eliminate defects in our health system," added Laurent in the release.
Only hospitals and health regions with 2,500 or more discharges are published in the public report.
Sunrise Health Region was one of three Saskatchewan health regions in the report.
Also included and lower than the national average were the Regina
Qu'Appelle Health Region with a hospital standardized mortality ratio of 91, and Saskatoon Health Region with a ratio of 93.
Sunrise hospitals in the health region have consistently performed better than the national average for the past six years.
The Canadian Institute for Health Information is an independent not-for-profit organization that collects and analyses data on Canada's health system and the health of Canadians.
