Death among surgical inpatients with serious treatable conditions

The indicator is intended to identify patients who die in the hospital following development of a potentially preventable complication (pneumonia, deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolus, sepsis, acute renal failure, shock/cardiac arrest, or gastrointestinal hemorrhage/acute ulcer).

The underlying assumption is that good hospitals identify these complications quickly and treat them aggressively and correctly.  While some patients have higher risks than others, some of these complications may be preventable. A lower rate may indicate that a hospital provides a higher level of patient care.

About this measure

This measure tracks the number of patient deaths in the hospital per every 1000 patients who had surgery and developed specific complications of care during their hospitalization.

In this case, a lower number is better.