What do the mortality categories show?

Answer:

The mortality categories show how individual hospital’s risk-adjusted 30-day death rates compare to the national rate.  A hospital’s performance is reported as

• Better Than The US National Rate,
• No Different Than The US National Rate, or
• Worse Than The US National Rate. 

Hospitals are only identified as better or worse than the U.S. national mortality rate if the 95% interval estimate for their risk-standardized mortality rate (RSMR) is completely above or below the U.S. national rate.

Better Than The US National Rate means the hospital has a 30-day risk-adjusted death (mortality) rate lower than the US national rate.

Worse Than The US National Rate means the hospital has a 30-day risk-adjusted death (mortality) rate higher than the U.S. National Rate.

No Different Than The US National Rate means there is no significant difference between the 30-day risk-adjusted death (mortality) rate and the U.S. National Rate. 

Last Updated: 4/24/2008