Hospital data reveals death rates

Recommendations made in the report included that a system that assigns a score based on overall health be used for all patients and all procedures. Photo / Thinkstock

Death rates from general anaesthesia and some of the most common surgeries have been revealed.

Recommendations on how to reduce the deaths of New Zealanders within 30 days of an operation have also been made.

Patients with additional disorders, poor overall health, the elderly and those who underwent an acute or emergency operation were more likely to die.

Deaths from 2008 to 2012 were covered by the report by the Perioperative Mortality Review Committee (POMRC).

Set-up in 2010, the Government-funded committee is a key part of the push to make surgery safer.

Associate Health Minister Peter Dunne said New Zealand was a world leader in the collection of such data.

"Being able to see real hospital data and real patient data is of huge value and adds to a large amount of knowledge and information for both clinicians and patients."

Such information showed there was still work to be done, Mr Dunne said. For example, mortality rates following coronary artery bypass grafts were higher for Maori than Europeans.

"This finding reminds us that higher perioperative mortality rates are driven by both the quality of perioperative care and also timely access to surgical care."

The report looked at deaths that occurred within 30 days of surgery, or longer if the patient was still in hospital.

It tracked certain procedures for the first time, including coronary bypasses and angioplasty, and also looked at how the most vulnerable patients fared.

Recommendations included that a system that assigns a score based on overall health be used for all patients and all procedures, including those that do not involve an anaesthetist.

Further investigation into early detection, diagnosis and management of severe postoperative sepsis was needed, the committee said, given that there was a mortality rate of 22 per cent of admissions.

A new report tracked deaths from 2008 to 2012. It counted deaths that occurred within 30 days of surgery, or longer if the patient was still in hospital.
•General anaesthesia - 1436 deaths (0.12 per cent of admissions).
•Cholecystectomy (surgical removal of the gallbladder) - 113 deaths (0.37 per cent of admissions).
•Hip arthroplasty - 645 deaths (1.58 per cent of admissions).
•Knee arthroplasty - 46 deaths (0.17 per cent of admissions).
•Coronary artery bypass graft - 134 deaths (2.47 per cent of admissions), with most deaths occurring within three days of surgery.
•Percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty - 369 deaths (1.66 per cent of admissions).