Summary
This publication of the SHMI relates to discharges in the reporting period April 2014 to March 2015.
Update [19/11/15] Update to SHMI one page summary and quarterly report.
The SHMI one page summary and quarterly report have been updated with details of a new known data quality issue. The notes section below has also been updated with further details of this.
Update [29/10/15] Replacement of SHMI one page summary.
A small error has been detected in the SHMI one page summary whereby the data quality note for United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust was incorrectly attributed to Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust. This file has been updated.
The SHMI is the ratio between the actual number of patients who die following hospitalisation at the trust and the number that would be expected to die on the basis of average England figures, given the characteristics of the patients treated there.
It covers all deaths reported of patients who were admitted to non-specialist acute trusts in England and either die while in hospital or within 30 days of discharge.
To help users of the data understand the SHMI, trusts have been categorised into bandings indicating whether a trust's SHMI is 'higher than expected', 'as expected' or 'lower than expected'.
Further background information and supporting documents are available on the SHMI homepage (see Related Links).
Key Facts
For the 137 trusts included in the SHMI from 1 April 2014 to 31 March 2015:
• There were approximately 8.7 million discharges, from which 287,000 deaths were recorded either while in hospital or within 30 days of discharge. This includes deaths from other causes as well as deaths related to the reason for the hospital admission.
• 16 trusts had a 'higher than expected' SHMI. Of these 16 trusts, 6 also had a 'higher than expected' SHMI for the same period in the previous year.
• 107 trusts had an 'as expected' SHMI.
• 14 trusts had a 'lower than expected' SHMI. Of these 14 trusts, 10 also had a 'lower than expected' SHMI for the same period in the previous year.
Notes:
1. There is a shortfall in the number of records in the Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) data for discharges in April 2015 for the following trusts: Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (provider code RBT) and United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust (provider code RWD). Further details are provided in the corresponding HES Admitted Patient Care data quality notes (see Related Links). Note that HES records for discharges in the period April 2014 - April 2015 have been used in the calculation of the SHMI for the reporting period April 2014 - March 2015 to allow deaths occurring within 30 days of discharge to be captured. This shortfall has a negligible impact on the SHMI at national level. However, the SHMI values for the affected trusts will be based on incomplete data and should therefore be interpreted with caution.
2. For discharges in the reporting period April 2014 - March 2015, the HES data for Croydon Health Services NHS Trust has missing secondary diagnosis codes in the fields DIAG_04 to DIAG_20 inclusive. Further details are provided in the corresponding HES Admitted Patient Care data quality notes (see Related Links). This has a negligible impact on the SHMI at national level. However, this may have resulted in a larger number of expected deaths being estimated for this trust than would have been the case if the missing data had been included in the analysis and so results for this trust should therefore be interpreted with caution.
3. West Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust (provider code RFW) became part of Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (provider code RQM) on 1st September 2015. However, as this change occurred after data processing for the October 2015 SHMI publication began, two separate indicator values for these trusts have been produced for this publication. From the January 2016 SHMI publication onwards, a single SHMI value will be reported for Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (provider code RQM) using combined data submitted by both trusts.
4. Torbay and Southern Devon Health and Care NHS Trust (provider code R1G) was acquired by South Devon Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (provider code RA9) on 1st October 2015. However, as this change occurred after data processing for the October 2015 SHMI publication began, data for Torbay and Southern Devon Health and Care NHS Trust has not been included in the SHMI for South Devon Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust for this publication. For the January 2016 SHMI publication onwards, the SHMI for South Devon Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust will also include data submitted by Torbay and Southern Devon Health and Care NHS Trust.
5. Further information on data quality can be found in Appendix B: Background Quality Report of the SHMI quarterly report, which can be downloaded from the 'Resources' section of this page.
Last edited: 31 August 2021 3:42 pm
