Letters
The death of death rates?
Time to abandon the use of HSMRs in the NHS
BMJ 2015; 351 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.h4308 (Published 11 August 2015) Cite this as: BMJ 2015;351:h4308
- Jammi N Rao, public health physician and non-executive director, Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust1
- 1Gorway Lodge, Walsall WS1 3BB, UK
- jammi2801{at}gmail.com
The latest evidence on the lack of correlation between avoidable mortality and the hospital standardised mortality ratio (HSMR) should lead us to abandon its use.1 2
The use of HSMRs has been questioned before, 3 4 and there remain serious theoretical objections that have never been adequately addressed by its proponents.5
As the chair of my trust’s …
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