Hospital Mortality Rates Remain Stable
The mortality rates in California's hospitals were fairly stable in 2012, with patients dying from specific medical conditions and surgeries at about the same rates as they had in the prior two years.
The Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development released the data on 193 hospitals statewide earlier this week, and there were few variations reported, although some large hospitals did struggle in some categories.
The death rate of acute myocardial infarctions was at 6.3%, down from the 6.5% rate reported in 2011 and 6.8% in 2010. For acute strokes, the 2012 mortality rate was 9.6%, worse than the 9.4% rate reported in 2011, but better than the 10% rate reported in 2010. The mortality rate for heart failure patients held steady at 3% – a number that has not changed over the past three years. The mortality rate for pneumonia patients declined slightly, to 4%, from 4.1% in 2011.
Several of the hospitals operated by Oakland-based Kaiser Permanente fared better than average in a variety of categories, as did facilities operated by Ontario-based Prime Healthcare Services.
Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center near downtown Los Angeles fared worse than average in eight of nine care categories, and significantly worse treating stroke and pneumonia patients. Sharp Grossmont Hospital in San Diego fared significantly worse in five treatment categories, as did the Palomar Health campus in downtown San Diego.
Among surgical procedures, repairs of abdominal aortic aneurysms had a significantly better success rate, with 1.1% of patients dying from the surgery, compared to 1.9% in 2011 and 1.4% in 2010. The mortality rate of those undergoing a pancreatic resection also improved, from 4.5% in 2010 to 3.1% in 2011 and down to 2.4% in the most recent data.
However, the mortality rate of patients undergoing craniotimies and brain surgeries worsened, dipping to 7.1% from 6.8% in 2011 and 6.6% in 2010. County-USC reported a 17% mortality rate.
By contrast, standouts in this category were Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica, with no mortalities in 114 cases and Glendale Adventist Medical Center, with a mortality rate of 3% out of 84 procedures performed in 2012.
California Hospital Medical Center in Los Angeles fared poorly in pancreatic resections, with an overall 35% mortality rate, although it only performed 16 such procedures during all of 2012.
Several hospitals that had worse than average results responded to OSHPD in writing.
Sharp Memorial Hospital in San Diego had higher-than-average mortality rates for strokes, heart failures and pneumonia. In a letter Sharp sent to regulators, it noted that its heart failure program “is a referral center for local and outlying hospitals that do not have further...treatment options for their patients,” and that the median age of the patients was 86 years old, and nearly 70% of them had “do not resuscitate” orders. It cited similar issues for many of its stroke and pneumonia admissions.
Delano Regional Medical Center in the Central Valley had a nearly 20% mortality rate for ischemic stroke patients, compared to the statewide average of 5.3%. Its mortality rate for pneumonia patients, at 8%, was double the statewide average.
In a letter to OSHPD, Delano said it partnered with another nearby facility that specializes in stroke and heart attack care. It also created hospitalist program to better monitor pneumonia patients.
Western Medical Center of Santa Ana attributed its 14.3% mortality rate for craniotimies due to the advanced age of several of five of the 13 patients who died, and the fact that several had been found in their homes unconscious prior to undergoing surgery.
