Death rates for emergency surgical admissions vary widely between hospitals

A new study reveals significant variation between hospitals in patient death rates following emergency surgical admissions in England. The study, published in the British Journal of Surgery , also found that survival rates were higher in hospitals with better resources. Patients presenting as emergencies account for the majority of deaths associated with general surgery. There is increasing evidence that the quality of care for these high-risk patients is variable across hospitals within the NHS. Such variability in care is likely to be reflected in differences in mortality rates among hospitals. To investigate, researchers at Imperial College London conducted a national study to quantify and explore variability in death rates among high-risk emergency general surgery patients. Their analysis included 367,796 patients who received care at 145 hospitals from 2000 to 2009.