Multiple new reports show Waitemata leading in quality

Multiple new reports show Waitemata leading in quality and safety

Waitemata District Health Board (DHB) leads the country in a number of key quality and safety measures and has the lowest hospital mortality rate of all 20 DHBs.

Quarterly Health Quality and Safety Commission (HQSC) Quality and Safety Markers released today (April–June 2015) show Waitemata DHB performed strongly on a number of key measures which included reaching 100 percent of older patients given an assessment for risk of falling.

Waitemata achieved the top national result on this marker and also performed strongly with 97 percent of patients at risk of falling receiving an individualised care plan.

Waitemata DHB Chief Executive Dr Dale Bramley says these measures are proof that our ongoing focus on quality and safety is benefiting our patients.

“The result is a significant achievement for our DHB and shows a measurable improvement in the quality of the service we provide, especially with regard to the safety of older people in our care,” says Waitemata DHB Chief Executive Dr Dale Bramley.

The DHB also reached 98 percent compliance with use of the surgical safety checklist, a considerable improvement from the 80 percent achieved in 2013, and also reached above 96 percent for adherence to processes for the reduction of surgical site infections.

“The challenge now is to build on this and to keep pushing ahead with quality improvements that continue to make the healthcare treatment journey better and safer for those in our care”.

The Hospital Standardised Mortality Ratio (HSMR) report is another reason for the Waitemata community to be confident in the high quality of healthcare the DHB provided.

The latest report card comes after a recent report by the Health and Disability Commissioner showing Waitemata DHB has the lowest rate of complaints per 100,000 discharges of any DHB in New Zealand.

Published for the first time by the Health Quality and Safety Commission and Ministry of Health, the HSMR report provides a ratio for each DHB by comparing actual deaths within 30 days of admission with those deaths predicted by a model which makes adjustments for known risk factors.

The report charts progress between 2007 and 2013, showing a steady trend of improvement at Waitemata DHB, where the latest HSMR was 0.72, compared with a national average for all 20 DHBs of 0.87. The second-lowest DHB had a ratio of 0.79.

Dr Bramley said Waitemata, like other DHBs, would need to carefully monitor the ratio over time. He said the results from the first six years of monitoring showed good improvement at Waitemata DHB.

“A hospital standardised mortality ratio is an early warning mechanism that can point to issues affecting patient care. At Waitemata DHB, we view the ratio as one component of our quality improvement framework but it’s very pleasing to see this indicator in clearly favourable territory.”

View the full Quality and Safety marker results here: http://www.hqsc.govt.nz/our-programmes/health-quality-evaluation/projects/quality-and-safety-markers/qsms/

ENDS

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